Red Hair
by SmurfyFriend
Summary: It's just a normal day for the smurflings until they're captured by Gargamel. They escape all fine and well, but something terrible's wrong with Sassette. Why is the little smurfling so sick? and what will it take to cure her? R&R, review if you fave :D
1. Capture and Escape

Ch1

The day started like any other. I woke up and stared at the bunk above me. My two best friends, Nat and Snappy were still huddled under their blankets snoring a little. I yawned widely and sat up, moving my droopy hat so it would stay on my head. Across from mine and Nat's bunk bed, there was a short, energetic smurfling girl with bouncy red hair and pink overalls. She was humming softly and brushing out her wavy, shoulder-length hair. Her name's Sassette, and she's our friend too. I watched as she twisted half of her hair into a tight braid, then did the same on the other side. She admired her auburn locks in the mirror, then turned to put on her traditional white smurf hat. "G'mornin' Sassette." I said groggily.

She jumped a little, then turned her attention to me. "Tired turtles! Did I wake you up, Slouchy?" She half whispered.

I shook my head and adjusted my cap. "Nuh-uh. I jus' woke up."

She smiled her pretty smile and snuck a peek at Nat and Snappy. "Ohhh! These two are jus' gonna sleep the whole day away!" she said, opening up the large toy chest that sat at the foot of the bed.

I already knew what she was gonna do. "Sassette, maybe we shou' let them sleep in t'day." I said, watching her pluck Snappy's drums from the toy chest. "Everysmurf was up real late las' night."

She shook her head, making her shiny braids bounce. "No way, Slouchy! Both of 'em _PROMISED_ we'd get up early t'day so we could finish our secret clubhouse!" She pouted.

I couldn't argue with her there. We _DID _promise. Out of nowhere she started pounding on the drums, making both Snappy and Nat hit the roof. "_AAH! Sassette! Wha' was that for!_" Snappy complained.

"You just about scared me half t' _smurf,_ ya hickory nut!" Nat chimed in.

Sassette folded her arms defiantly. "You guys _PROMISED _we'd get up early an' work on th' secret clubhouse!" she pouted.

"Oh yeah..." Snappy grumbled sheepishly.

"I guess we forgot 'bout that..." Nat added, adjusting his straw hat.

I rolled my eyes a little and leaned against the bunk bed. Sassette's mood smurfed a complete 180. "Smurfaroo!" She said with a wide smile, "You guys get dressed an' ready, I'll go see if Handy's up yet!"

She turned and ran out, slamming the door behind her. I walked to the big dresser across from my bunk bed and opened up my drawer. "C'mon you guys," I said getting a clean red shirt and pants. "Might's well get dressed."

The three of us got dressed and started towards Handy's workshop. "I _STILL_ don' see why we hafta get up so early jus' t' work on that dumb ol' clubhouse." Snappy grumbled.

"Cause we promised Sassette we would." Nat said, watching a passing butterfly, "An' you know Sassette. You _KNOW_ she never lets us forget our promises."

I nodded a little in agreement. Sure, Sassette's our friend, and we love her and all, but she's such a stickler about promises! She holds us to _every_ promise we make. Even the ones we just make as a _joke_! We're all still nervous because she made us promise one of us'd marry her!

The three of us found Handy hard at work in his shop, Sassette eagerly studying his movements. "Mornin' smurflings," Handy said tiredly, "You kids all ready to finish up that secret clubhouse?"

Sassette nodded excitedly. I smiled lazily. Snappy pouted a little. "Sure, Handy!" Nat said happily.

"Orrright! Help me load up the wagon and we'll start out!" Handy said, putting his tool box in a wagon.

We put lots of wood and nails and stuff in the wagon, then started out towards the forest. We walked a little while more, and came to a big hollow tree. "Chatterin' Chipmunks! This's gonna be the best secret club house _EVER!_" Sassette said, turning a cartwheel and climbing up the tree.

"What should we do, Handy?" I asked calmly.

"Here, Slouchy. Smurf this piece'a wood up there." Handy said, pointing to the high level of the clubhouse.

Nat and I carried the large piece of wood up to the top level of our clubhouse, and waited for Handy to give us more instructions. We all worked on the clubhouse for a good two and a half hours, before Snappy sat down and wiped his forehead. "Gee wiz, Handy! Can we please take a break?" he asked.

My tummy grumbled a little. "I'm hungry..." I muttered.

"Me too." Nat agreed.

"Me three." Sassette said, sliding down the tree trunk.

"Well, I'm sure there's some wild smurfberry bushes around here." he said. "Why don't you kids go find one and have some breakfast? I'll finish up on the top level."

"Smurfaroo!" Snappy exclaimed, jumping up and dashing off into the forest. "Thanks, Handy! We'll bring you some back!"

"Thanks, Snappy! But don't go too far away!" he called after him, "Remember- _don't go past the Great Oak without me!_"

"We won't Handy!" Nat shouted back, following Snappy and Sassette.

I followed them at a slower pace. Sure, I was hungry and all, but what's the point of being hungry _AND_ tired? I followed them through the forest, looking for a wild smurfberry bush. Our search for smurfberries soon led us to a big, tall tree. "Okay, guys." I said, turning around, "Let's go back an' Handy we couldn't find anythin'"

"Aw, don' be such a soursmurf, Slouchy!" Sassette laughed a little, "I know where there's a great big ol' smurfberry bush just covered with smurfberries!"

"I dunno, Sassette." Nat said, letting a butterfly rest on the wide brim of his hat. "Flutterby says he saw Gargamel and Azrael in the forest t'day."

"Aw, not you too, Nat!" She rolled her eyes a little.

"I'll go get Handy an' then we'll go look for Smurfberries over there." Nat said, walking back through the shrubbery.

I leaned against the Great Oak. Sassette motioned for me and Snappy to follow her. A little curious, I followed her. She led us a little further from the Great Oak, where there was a great big ol' smurfberry bush with lots of really big ripe berries. "WOW!" Snappy exclaimed, holding one of the big berries in his palm, "they've gotta be the smurfiest smurfberries in th' whole forest!"

Sassette beamed a little, harvesting the fruits of her findings. "I toldja I knew where t' find it!" she hummed a little, popping a berry in her mouth.

"And I knew where to find SMURFS!" an all too familiar voice boomed.

My heart dropped into my stomach. "_GARGAMEL!_" We shouted in unison.

He laughed an evil cackle and snatched us up before we could get away. "I have you now!" he laughed evilly.

We struggled in his grasp, trying to get away. I looked and saw Nat and Handy watching us with their mouths hanging open. They got smaller, and smaller as Gargamel took us away. The evil wizard held us tightly in his grasp. No matter how much Snappy, Sassette and I struggled, the looser of a sorcerer kept a firm grip of us. It wasn't long before the gross smell of pond scum and failure hit my nose, telling me we were at Gargamel's hovel. The door was stuck from decades of being torn open and slammed shut. With one big kick and a nudge of his hip, he forced the door open. This hovel is probably the most disorganized place in the forest- and I live with three other smurflings! It's honestly amazing he can find anything in this mess… "I've done it, Azrael!" he shouted to a ruddy red cat curled up on a on an old wooden rocking chair.

The large cat opened his eyes and perked up at the sound of his master's voice. His large nicked ear twitched in slight annoyance as he rolled his amber eyes. "Mreah, mreaaah..." he meowed in reply.

"I'll use these three to lure the rest of those rotten miserable smurfs right into my trap!" he plotted, "Then I'll turn them _ALL_ into _GOLD_!"

"Sufferin' sorcerers, Pappy Gargamel! Does tha' mean you an' me finally get t' spend some time t'gether?" Sassette chimed so excitedly.

Snappy and I shared an irritated eye roll. It drives everysmurf so _SMURFY_ when she calls him that. She calls him "Pappy" like she's his own flesh and blood, just because it was one of his dumb spells that made her. All I can say is he is one smurfofa deadbeat dad. Failed out of wizard's school, laughingstock of the magical community, and on top of that, his only friend is that mean ol' cat. Smurf up "pathetic" in the dictionary and you'll see Gargamel's picture. "_Yech_, NO, you little blue bumpkin!" he grimaced, "You are going in a cage out of my sight so I won't have to see or hear your-"he grimaced-"_Disgusting_ little voice!"

"Oh," she said, looking disappointed.

The disorganized bumbler stuffed Sassette in a cage, then put it on top of the bookshelf next to his cauldron. Next he forced the tenacious Snappy into a separate cage and hung it over a table. Lastly, he herded me into another cage and put me on a tall bookshelf opposite to Sassette. "_Hey!_ What gives?" Snappy shouted, "How come we're all in diff'rent cages!"

"_Divide and conquer_, you little blue blabbermouth," Gargamel sneered in reply, "Now that you three are apart, there's less of a chance you'll escape!"

_I don't like being alone_, I admitted, stuffing my hands in my pockets and leaning against the back of the metal birdcage. _Where on smurf are Handy and Nat?_

Gargamel started mixing ingredients in his big, black cauldron. He sang his "Toast a Few" song while he worked, his gravelly voice piercing my eardrums. The fumes and smoke from the alchemy mixture drifted upwards, staying about where Sassette's cage sat. She started coughing. Quietly, at first, then getting worse and worse until it got so bad it looked like she couldn't even smurf a breath. "Hoppin'-_cough_- "Horny-toads, Pa-" _cough_- "Pappy Gargamel! Can'tcha please mo-" _cough_-"move this thin' somewhere else? I can't-" she cut herself off with a loud coughing fit.

"I will _NOT_!" Gargamel boomed defiantly, "You're faking that cough to get closer to your miserable little blue bosom buddies! I wasn't born yesterday!"

"We can tell!" Snappy retorted. Gargamel shot him a dirty look.

Sassette sure didn't look like she was faking. Her face started to turn a deep purple color as her coughing got harder and harder. She fell to her knees and gripped the bars of her cage, coughing hard. "_P-PLEASE, Pappy_-" she couldn't even finish her sentence.

"At least move the cauldron!" I begged, "_PLEASE, she can't breathe!_"

Slowly, Sassette's coughing started ebbing away. She slumped face first to the floor of the cage, grasping the bars of the cage desperately. My heart nearly stopped. _Is she…?_ "AHA! Fake cough!" The bumbler didn't even seem to realize the direness of the situation.

Snappy angrily rattled the bars of his cage. "Y_-YOU SMURFITY SMURF SMURF!_" he yelled, sounding angry and scared, "When the other smurfs come an' get us, they'll-!"

"Mwahahaha!" Gargamel laughed, shaking Snappy's cage, "NO one can save you now!"

"No one 'cept ME!" I heard a familiar voice from the window.

I turned my gaze from the unconscious Sassette to the window. Hefty, Handy and Nat stood in the windowsill. "MORE SMURFS!" Shouted Gargamel, "Get them, Azrael!"

The large cat hissed and mewled in loud reply, then leaped for the windowsill. The smurfs dodged him just in time, jumping onto the table. While Nat drew Azrael's attention, Hefty threw a hook onto the latch of my cage and gave a hard yank. The latch unhooked, letting the door swing open. "Slide down the rope, Slouchy!" Hefty yelled to me.

I inched my way along on the door of the cage, then slid down the rope. Hefty caught me just as I reached the end, then gave the rope a hard flick to unhook it from the cage. "Where's Sassette?" Handy asked, helping Snappy down from his cage.

I pointed up at the bookshelf. "S-she passed out!" I managed to say, "She can't get out by herself!"

Hefty looked up at the cage and furrowed his brows. He clenched his fists and took a deep breath. "I'm gonna go get her then!" he said, bravely swinging the hook over his head.

He threw it, and let it hook onto the bars of her cage. Hefty gave it a few tugs to make sure it wasn't gonna smurf free. "But Hefty!" Snappy tried stopping him, "You're scared'a heights!"

Before the smurfling could get another word in, Hefty swung to the bookshelf and started climbing the wooden shelves. Gargamel noticed Hefty climbing around his magic tomes, and started swatting at him. "Hey! Garbage-smell!" Snappy bravely shouted, turning Gargamel's attention from the scaling smurf, "Betcha can't catch me!"

Gargamel brought his hand down on the table, nearly squashing Snappy and me. I stumbled backwards, knocking over an empty beaker. Snappy and me avoided the loser wizard's grabbing as best as we could. I cast a glance to Hefty. He'd opened the cage door and draped Sassette over his shoulder. He repelled from the bookshelves as quickly and carefully as he could. Once he reached the ground, he ran for the window. "C'mon, Snappy! Slouchy!" Handy shouted, grabbing Nat from Azrael's claws and hauling him up onto the windowsill by his brown overalls.

I dodged another one of Gargamel's attempts to catch me, and ran to the end of the table. Snappy and I cleared the table, but I came up a little short at the windowsill. I missmurfed the distance and landed too close to the edge. "Woooaahh!" I exclaimed falling backwards a little.

"We gotcha, Slouchy!" Nat said, grabbing my red shirt and pulling me back from the ledge.

"Thanks," I said, wiping my forehead.

"Thank us later!" Handy said, leaping from the windowsill to the ground outside, "Let's smurf outta here!"

We all followed him, running from the disheveled hovel. The six of us ran into the forest, leaving behind a cursing, fuming Gargamel in the messy shanty. Once we were pretty far away from the marsh, we all stopped to smurf our breaths. I turned to Hefty and Sassette. He had her cradled in his strong arms, her little hands folded over her chest. Her braids hung limply away from her face. Her face was a slightly purplish color, and dirtied with a sooty substance. Hefty gave her a gentle shake. "Sassette?" he said, worriedly, "C'mon, Sassy_… wake up_…"

She didn't respond at all. "_Is she-? Is she-?"_ Nat half-whispered, his normally tan skin flushing to a pale blue.

He looked so scared. We all probably did. Handy frantically felt around Sassette's neck, trying to find any signs of life. He paused for a moment, then breathed a sigh. "She's alive," he assured us, "But we'd better hurry and get her to Papa smurf."

I couldn't take my eyes off Sassette. She looked so… So…. _STILL_…. "C'mon," Hefty said, shaking me from my thoughts. "Let's go."

We started running for the village. I only hoped we weren't too late to save her.

(Smurfette)

I had just put Baby down for a nap when I heard the news. I was about to start watering my flowers when I noticed the other smurfs in the village starting to gather by the village square. I was curious. _What's going on?_ I wondered_, I hope everything's all right_. I joined the throng of smurfs on their way to whatever was so interesting. I saw Vanity and Farmer walking hand in hand and conversing quietly, tension outlining their body language. I walked towards them. Whatever was going on, Vanity was sure to know. "Hi, Farmer, Hi Vanity," I smiled casually at my friends, "what's with all the hubbub?"

Farmer turned to me, worry in his face. "'lo Smurfette." He said, anxiety in his voice, "Th' smurflin's jus' got back from a smurfin' with Garg'mel."

"Oh no!" I said, "But they're all okay, right?"

He looked away, squeezing Vanity's hand. Vanity whispered something incoherent in his ear, then looked at me. "S-Sassette…" he said, worry in his voice, "_She's passed out, and won't wake up."_

A wave of worry passed over me. _My… My adopted sister… Won't wake up?_ It wasn't long before we reached the epicenter of all the activity. Farmer and I pushed our way through the crowd, trying to get past the others. That was when I saw her. Hefty had the little pink and blue bundle cradled delicately in his arms. Handy stood with the three worried boy smurflings, sharing in their anxiety. Farmer approached Hefty, ruffling Sassette's auburn hair and gently stroking her forehead. He was her mentor; it was only instinct that he was so worried for the little child. I, on the other hand, wasn't sure what I felt. Fear? Shock? Sadness? Maybe all three.

Whatever the driving emotion, I approached Hefty and my adopted little sister and took her hand. It felt almost- cold to the touch. I cast a glance at the smurflings. Slouchy looked close to tears, worry dominating his features. Snappy looked angry and scared like he wanted to punch someone, then break down crying. Nat looked the most spooked of the three. He actually had small tears in his glassy eyes, and he couldn't take his eyes off the unconscious little smurfling. He looked more white than blue, and had guilt and fear written all over his face. "Make way! Make way! Papa smurf and his assistant coming through!" A loud, almost whiney voice called from within the crowd.

I tore my gaze from the smurflings to see Papa smurf making his way through the crowd, Brainy shooing smurfs and creating a path for him. Papa smurf looked at Sassette, shock in his face, and approached the child. "Papa smurf?" Nat asked, "Is she going to be all right?"

Papa smurf put a hand on Sassette's forehead, smoothing her hair back behind her ear. "I'm not sure yet, Nat." he replied, much to the shock of the smurflings, "I have to find out what exactly is the matter, first. What happened when you were in Gargamel's hovel?"

Snappy was the first to speak up. "That dumb ol' _Gargamel_! H-he was makin' some kinda potion, an' she was where all th' smoke an' stuff was goin'…" he fumed.

"An' then she just started coughin' like there was no t'morrow!" Slouchy added, his usually calm, even voice broken with fear, "W-we _begged _him t' move the cage, or mix th' potion somewhere else, but-" Slouchy sounded close to tears, "_H-he wouldn't listen to us…"_

Papa smurf scratched his beard thoughtfully. The smurfs in the crowd chirred amongst themselves in concern. "I see," Papa smurf said at last, "Hefty, Farmer, bring her inside and tuck her into my bed."

Hefty silently nodded and walked into the mushroom house, Farmer, Handy and the other smurflings trailing close behind. Farmer gently tucked the fragile looking little smurfling under the covers, and took a seat next to her. I sat next to him, watching her motionless little body. "Is she gon' be okay, Papa smurf?" Slouchy asked, not taking his eyes off Sassette.

"Don't be stupid, Slouchy!" Snappy snapped, his eyebrows ridged in worry, "Sassette's gon' be ok, an' we'll finish that dumb ol' clubhouse, an' _she'll be ok_! Right, Papa smurf?"

Papa smurf started to answer, but Nat cut in. "How d'you _KNOW,_ you hickory nut?" he shouted at Snappy, tears rolling down his cheeks, "_She might not ever wake up at all!_"

We all recoiled a bit at the normally peaceful smurfling's outburst. Nat still looked the most scared of all of us. He sniffled a bit, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. "We could never see Sassette alive _again… and it'd be all my fault_!" he blubbered a little, "If I'd never left t' go find Handy, maybe she woulda stayed!"

The smurfling hung his head, his big straw hat falling in his face. He had done a lot of growing up since Dreamy died. I'd be more surprised if he hadn't, having lost his best friend to suicide. Nevertheless, he was still a smurfling. Losing someone so close to him… poor fellow didn't deserve that to happen twice. "Nat." Farmer spoke quietly, "C'mere."

Nat wiped his eyes and nose and sniffled a little. He went over to Farmer, who sat him down on his knee closer to Sassette. "_It wan't your fault, shugah_." He said, his mellifluous southern dialect low and calming, "You know Sassy's well as Ah do. She'da gone even _if _ya stayed. Then Garg'mel woulda caught all four'a ya, an' we mighta not found ya til it was too late…. Sassette mighta died right there…"

We all knew he was just exaggerating, but the boys took it at face value. "You prolly saved her life gettin' Handy, Nat." Farmer told him, "You're a _hero_."

Nat smiled a little and beamed at his newest title. "Nat, Snappy, Slouchy," Papa smurf said from behind his bubbling potions, "Perhaps it would be best if you boys let her rest. We'll find you when she wakes up."

Snappy pouted. Nat crossed his arms. Slouchy shook his head, his large hat nearly falling off in the process. "Come on, you three! Papa smurf always says _'A watched pot never smurfs!'_" Brainy lectured, trying to shoo the three out the door.

The boys, however, remained adamant in their decision to stay. "_NO_!" Snappy protested, "We wanna be here when she wakes up!"

Slouchy and Nat nodded firmly in agreement. I could just see Papa smurf sighing internally, so I stepped in. "How about us four go see if Greedy's made a batch of smurfberry ice cream," I suggested, "Then Brainy will find us when Sassette's woken up."

The boys looked only barely deterred from their decision. I'm going to need more, I thought to myself, thinking of what to say next. "_Mmm,_ yes… A great, big bowl of smurfberry ice cream," I snuck a peek at them.

"With lots of crushed almonds," they glanced at eachother.

"Ooh! And lots of yummy hot fudge," the boys smiled a little and rolled their eyes dreamily.

"And a great, big crushed cookie on top!" That did it. Now these smurflings were putty in my hands.

"Well- uh—on second thought, maybe we _SHOULD_ let her rest." Slouchy spoke calmly, a discreet smile on his face and his hand rubbing his little tummy hungrily, "Papa smurf always says _a watched pot never smurfs_."

Brainy grinned a little, smugly. I rolled my eyes a little with a smile and watched the young smurfs walk out the door. "I don't know how you do it. I can't get those kids to do anything some days. You are a _goddess_, Smurfette." Handy remarked, scratching his temple in wonderment. "Truly a goddess."

I walked past him on my way out. "Tell me something I _don't _know, sweetie." I said with a wink and a tickle of his chin.


	2. More?

**(Smurfette)**

I followed the smurfling boys to Greedy's kitchen. They all lingered at the door, eagerly urging me to move faster with their eyes and still anxious faces. Once I joined them at the door, Snappy eagerly rapped his knuckles against the tall wooden door. "Come on in! The door's open!" The jolly voice of Greedy sounded from inside the kitchen.

The smurflings quickly obliged, darting into the kitchen. Greedy was standing at an island in the middle of the kitchen, slaving over some sort of culinary concoction. "Hiya, Greedy!" Nat said, standing on his tiptoes and peering curiously into the bowl, "Whatcha makin'?"

Greedy gave Nat a piece of paper. "Okonomyaki. Chef and Baker are visiting in Japan, so they sent me a recipe for Japanese-style pizza." He explained, separating the pasty looking dough into separate piles.

Baker and Chef were currently traveling the world, searching for new recipies. The brothers were Greedy's teachers, and they often sent him new recipies to try. "Lemme see! Lemme see!" Snappy said, snatching the paper from Nat. "yuck!" he exclaimed, "cabbage? Mayonnaise? In PIZZA? That's gross!"

Greedy smiled smugly. "Don't smurf it til you try it, Picky smurf!" he hummed a little, wiping his hands on the apron that covered his plump belly.

"I am NOT picky!" Snappy protested.

"Then what why do you separate your mashed potatoes and peas, then whine when they're not in two different piles?"

"I don't like 'em touching! But I'm NOT picky!"

Greedy just loves pushing Snappy's buttons. Not that it's hard to do so, but he just took quite a bit of pleasure in making the little smurfling lose his temper. Honestly, Snappy's frustration with Greedy was a welcome change in attitude. We were all still worried about Sassette. While Greedy teased Snappy and Snappy, well, snapped, I cast a glance at Nat and Slouchy. Poor Nat still looked sad and guilty, even though we'd already told him it wasn't his fault. Slouchy looked so sad, and serious. The type of seriousness that understood what was happening, but was too young to truly grasp the direness of the situation. I felt a pang of sympathy in my stomach. These two were definitely more mature than Sassette and Snappy most days, but they shouldn'tve felt so guilty… mature or not, they're still kids… "So, Greedy!" I said, interrupting their little argument and taking my eyes off the sad little smurflings, "I don't suppose you have any smurfberry ice cream for us?"

Greedy looked away from his victim and smiled a little. "Actually, I do!" he said, then turned back to Snappy "but I'll only share it if a certain little smurfling admits he's picky!"

Snappy pouted and crossed his arms. He mumbled something under his breath. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that?" Greedy said, putting a hand next to his ear to hear better.

"I'm picky." Snappy mumbled, begrudgingly, "Now where's that ice cream!"

Greedy chuckled a little, smugly, then went to the ice box and got a large container full of ice cream. "Say… Where's Sassette? I haven't seen her at all today!" he asked, at last noticing the missing member of the smurfling quartet.

Snappy frowned a little and looked at the ground. Nat stared at the ground and shuffled his bare feet, uncomfortably. Slouchy turned away and hugged his arms. Greedy looked confused. "What's with the silent smurf-ment here, guys?" Greedy asked, slightly nervously, reaching for a stray pastry, "Where's Sassette?"

I took him aside and spilled the whole story out of their earshot. They've been through enough for one day. "I thought something was off…" Greedy muttered, nervously unwrapping the cupcake in his hands, bringing it to his open mouth. "You never see one without the rest."

The kitchen was mostly silent for a good few minutes. The awkwardness felt so thick not even one of Greedy's chef knives could've smurfed through it. At last, Slouchy spoke up—or at least his stomach did. Greedy chuckled a little. "here, let's all have a big ol' bowl of ice cream." He said, breaking the tension with one of his wide smiles. "I think we all could smurf a good sugar fix right about now."

The smurflings smiled a little, then went to go get bowls and spoons from the clean dishes rack. Greedy opened the drawer in front of him and searched for his ice cream scoop. I watched as Snappy tried to force a small bowl out from underneath a larger mixing bowl. I started to walk towards him, but I was too late. As soon as Snappy and Nat got their bowls from underneath the red bowl, it quickly fell to the floor with a loud crash. Greedy jerked his head in their direction, and covered his eyes with his palm. "Smurf- Smurfit!" he cursed a little under his breath, "My favorite mixing bowl! Ruined!"

Slouchy leaned against the island smugly. "I told you guys it was gon' fall." He said with a shrug of his slumped shoulders.

Nat started walking around the large shards. "We're sorry, Greedy!" he apologized, "Here, I'll help you- Ow!"

He'd stepped on a smaller shard of glass. He held his bare foot and leaned against the counter. "ow! That hurt!" he muttered.

Greedy stepped over the glass and helped Nat and Snappy both up onto the counter. "I have a first- aid bag in my cupboard… Smurfette, can you find it for me?" he asked, sweeping up the other pieces of glass so no other smurf could step on them.

I nodded and started looking through the cupboards. At last, I found the little metal box. I took it from the cupboard and put it on the counter next to the two. Nat showed me his hurt foot. His feet were a dark brown from all his walking around barefoot. I used a pair of tweezers to carefully take the shard of glass from the smurfling's foot, then an antiseptic to clean it out. Once the wound was clean, I put a little gauze over the cut and wrapped it down. "There." I said, "You know, that might not have happened if you were wearing shoes."

He smiled a little and rolled his eyes. I always smurfed him about not wearing shoes. The little guy was going to hurt himself one of these days! Honestly! Before Nat could give me an excuse about how walking without shoes makes him feel more connected to nature, there was a loud knock on the door. "Come in." Greedy called, still sounding a little smurfed.

The door opened and revealed Brainy. Immediately, the boys perked up. Slouchy shuffled to the bespectacled smurf. Nat and Snappy practically vaulted over Greedy and the broken bowl. I walked around Greedy, eager to hear good news about Sassette. "Well?" Slouchy said, calm eagerness in his voice.

Brainy smiled a little and adjusted his spectacles. "Sassette's finally started waking up, thanks to my brilliance and expertise in-"The smurflings didn't even let him finish.

They quickly darted out the door, leaving me with Brainy and Greedy. Brainy pouted a little. "hmmph! So much for gratitude!" he grumbled a little.

Greedy chuckled a little, sweeping the glass into a dust pan. I approached him and gave the plump smurf a quick hug. "Thank you, Greedy." I said. "Sorry about your bowl."

He smiled a little and squeezed me back. "It's ok, Smurfette. It's just a bowl." He said.

I broke the hug, then walked out with Brainy. The two of us rushed back to Papa smurf's lab, avoiding conversation. Not that I don't like Brainy, or anything like that. He can be awfully annoying some days, and I just want to kick him, but he has his good traits too. Just… today, I didn't feel tolerant enough to listen to one of his self important diatribes. It wasn't too long before we reached Papa smurf's lab. Brainy and I let ourselves in. Farmer and Handy were still by Sassette's bedside, and the smurfling boys were all eagerly lined up next to the bed as their bosom buddy finally started to mutter and stir. I felt a relieved smile creep over me. I joined the boys on her bedside, kneeling down a bit so I was about their height.

The little smurfling's eyes fluttered open, and she looked around groggily. She turned her head slightly towards us. "Snappy… Slouchy… Nat… Smurfette…" she croaked hoarsely.

Nat smiled a big, wide smile and hugged Sassette tightly. "You hickory nut!" he said, "You scared us!"

"We thought we was never gon' see you again!" Snappy added, joining in the hug.

"Don' do that again, 'kay?" Slouchy asked her, lazily hugging her from next to Nat.

Sassette was surprised by the boys' sudden expression of affection. "Worried Wartmongers! I didn' know you guy'sd be so scared!" she said, her voice still hoarse.

"Well, course." Slouchy said with a little shrug of his shoulders, "You're our friend. Tha's wha' friends do."

The camaraderie between the four smurflings is truly a sight to behold. As much as they pick on eachother on some days, you will never find a group of friends so close in the entire world, smurf, human or otherwise. But… as with any species… Boys will be boys. Snappy started squirming out of the hug. "Ok, ok! I'm done hugging!" he squirmed.

He broke himself out of the hug, then grimaced and wiped his hands on his bright yellow shirt. "yeech! I'm gonna have cooties for weeks!" he complained.

Slouchy and Nat soon followed suit in breaking the hug. "Bu' Smurfette says there's no such thing's cooties." Slouchy said, looking at me.

I smiled a little. "There ISN'T." I said firmly.

Snappy crossed his arms. "You're jus' sayin' that cause you're a girl." He muttered, crossly.

"Well, now, seeing as you four are all together again," Papa smurf said, approaching the bed, "Now might be a good time to choose a punishment for going past the Great Oak without a grown-up."

Snappy pouted and looked at the ground. Slouchy hung his head a bit, ready to accept whatever punishment Papa smurf dealt out. Sassette wrung her hands awkwardly. "Hmm…" Papa smurf stroked his beard thoughtfully, "Farmer was just saying he needed a few extra hands out in the fields for the harvest, am I right, Farmer?"

Farmer grinned a little, locking eyes with all the smurflings. "as'a matter'a fact… yeah, Ah do need some extra help." He said, still grinning.

The smurflings glowered a little. "Then it's settled! Once Sassette's up and about, you three are going out to help Farmer harvest the crops." Papa smurf said firmly, "Do I smurf myself clear?"

"Yes, Papa smurf." The smurflings droned a little, accepting their punishment.

"Good… now, go wash up for lunch." Papa said, suppressing a smile as he dismissed the boys.

Sassette was still too tired to do anything, so she waved goodbye as the boys bounded out the door. Once they were gone, she looked up at me and smiled. "Hi… Smurfette…" she said hoarsely.

I smiled back and sat next to her. "Hi, Sassette." I replied. "You sure scared me."

Her smile disappeared. " Grateful gophers, I'm sorry, Smurfette. I din' mean to…" she said, wringing her hands guiltily, "I jus' really wanted those smurfberries…"

I hugged her a little, hiding my face slightly in her beautiful auburn hair. "It's ok… just don't do it again, all right?"

She nodded firmly. "I sure won't! Promise! I won't scare anyone like tha' again!" she said.

I gave her a little squeeze. "Good… that's a good thing to promise, Sassette."

"Thanks, Big Sister."

**(Slouchy)**

It was a few days before Sassette could get out of bed and do stuff. And once she was feeling back to a hundred percent, we had to go work out in Farmer's fields. At least the day was nice. Lots of sun, not a cloud in the sky. Wasn't too hot, either. Sassette and I were smurfing the rutabaga, and Farmer and Snappy were checking if the tomatoes were ripe. Harvesting rutabaga isn't that hard to do. None of us had ever had any trouble with it at all. Yet for some reason, Sassette looked really tired, like the very effort of bending down to pull the vegetable from the ground was too much for her. She'd been coughing a lot lately, too. Sometimes she'd be up almost all night. Is she getting sick or something? I wondered.

She paused from her working for a minute and coughed into her elbow. It sounded pretty wet and yucky, worse than it had for the last two weeks or so. Then she went back to picking the rutabaga. "Are you feeling ok, Sassette?" I asked, bending down to harvest more of the turnip-like vegetables. "You don' sound so good."

She waved her hand a little, dismissively. "Aw, Rollin' Rutabaga, Slouchy! I feel just smurfy!" She said, smiling, "It's this pesky cough that doesn' sound good."

"Maybe you shou' talk t' Papa smurf." I said, "Sounds like it's only gotten worse."

She dismissed me with a roll of her eyes. "I feel FINE, Slouchy. Smurfy-" she started coughing really, really hard.

She was struggling to breathe. I felt paralyzed. "F-Farmer!" I shouted. "Sassette's coughin' again!"

Farmer looked up from his harvesting and ran over. Sassette fell to her knees, still coughing. Without a moment's hesitation, he scooped her up in his arm, and bolted for Papa smurf's lab. Snappy dropped the tomato in his hand into the wheelbarrow and followed him. "You hurry up an' go find Nat!" he shouted at me, "I'll meet'cha at Papa smurf's lab!"

I nodded and rushed off to go find Nat. there were only a few places he hung out when the rest of us were being punished for something. Over by Lazy's hammock, the rabbit warren, or the tree near the really big bird's nest. I ran to the tree since it was closer. Nat wasn't there, just a big blue bird feeding creepy- crawlers to a couple of babies. The next closest place was Lazy's hammock. I ran over to his mushroom-shaped hut, to a hammock set up between two poles. A big, blue lump rested in the hammock, snoring and muttering in peaceful slumber. "Lazy!" I said, nudging him a little to wake him up. "Lazyyyy! Wake up!"

The snoring quieted and the lump sat up suddenly, making the hammock wobble and dump the blue lump on the ground below. "Wha…? What was that for, Slouchy?" Lazy asked, sounding too tired to be annoyed. "I was having the smurfiest dream."

"Sorry, Lazy," I apologized, "Bu' d'you know where Nat is?"

Lazy looked up at me, his half- closed eyes blinking dreamily. "Greedy told him t' get some water for-" he yawned as if the mere act of talking was just too tiring-"dinner."

He quickly drifted off to sleep in a tired heap on the ground. I left him to keep sleeping and ran for the village well. Nat was there, standing on his tiptoes so he could reach the crank. "Nat!" I called for him.

He looked up, looking a little confused. "Wha'smatter, Slouchy?" He asked, not letting go of the crank.

"Sassette's sick again." I said, panting a little from all the running I was doing. "She's in Papa smurf's lab."

He took the bucket from the hook and left it on the ground next to the well. "Greedy's stew can wait a little while!" he said, "C'mon!"

Aw, smurfaroo. I thought, More running! The two of us quickly made our way to Papa smurf's lab, where the door was wide open on it's hinges. Sassette was lying on the bed in the far end of the lab, gasping for air. Snappy was at her side, looking really worried. Nat ran through the open door and joined him. I almost felt too scared to join them. All the events of the last few days…. They'd just felt like some kind of unsmurfy dream… Like if I blinked a few times, or pinched myself I'd wake up, and everything would be back to the way it was…

I forced myself to join my friends. Sassette writhed on the bed, coughing and gasping for air. She grabbed my hand and held onto it with all her might. Which was a lot, even for a girl. "There!" Papa smurf said, finishing some kind of potion. "This should stop her coughing!"

He put some kind of a spray nozzle on the beaker and rushed over to Sassette's bedside. Snappy, Nat and I moved out of the way so he could help her. He sprayed some of the potion into Sassette's mouth and waited a moment. Her coughing finally started to cease, and her grip on my fingers finally relaxed a bit. She took a few deep breaths and rested her head on the pillow. "Coughin'…. Catfish… Pappy…" she said groggily.

"Shh…" Papa smurf shushed her, "Sleep, Sassette. The potion won't work unless you sleep."

Sassette blinked tiredly in reply, then slipped into slumber. It wasn't long before her soft snores filled the quiet laboratory. Farmer sat in his seat, worriedly smoothing her ruddy red hair back behind her ear. "That was much too smurf for comfort," Papa smurf muttered under his breath. "That's twice now she couldn't breathe. There's more to this than whatever she inhaled in Gargamel's hovel."

I unwrapped Sassette's fingers from mine, then laid her hand over her tummy. Her chest rose and fell slowly and evenly. She looked so peaceful… it was so hard to believe she had really just been fighting to breathe. "Wha's wrong with her, Papa smurf?" Snappy asked, sounding worried.

Papa smurf exhaled a sigh. "I don't know yet, Snappy." He replied, "But I will find out."

Nat and I shared a worried glance, then sat in the little wooden stools next to the bed. Sassette snored slightly, her ears twitching in some sort of a dream. "I'm gon' go find Smurfette," Nat said, standing and tearing himself away from the scene.

He had a guilty look on his face. I don't really know why, he had no reason to feel so guilty. But for whatever reason, it had become a popular expression with him when Sassette was sick. He ducked his head and walked out of the lab. Snappy sat next to Farmer on the other side of the bed. The three of us sat and watched her sleep for a while, until Nat came back with Smurfette. Her long blonde hair bounced a little as she looked around the room. She saw Sassette napping, and joined me. She entwined their fingers and smoothed her hair a little, tracing her fingers along the bumps in her auburn braids. Smurfette looked a special type of sad. The kind of sad that says something's really, really wrong, but there's nothing anyone can really do about it. the type of sad that gives me an unsmurfy feeling in the pit of my tummy… "Snappy, Slouchy, Nat?" Papa smurf shook me from my thinking, "May I smurf you a few questions?"

"How was I supposed t' know that pie would land on Brainy's big ol' head?" Snappy defended himself.

"That was you!" a whiney voice piped up from behind a large mountain of books.

Snappy smacked his forehead in exasperation. "Open mouth, smurf foot." I nudged him a little.

He shot me a dirty look. "That- eh—wasn't what I was about to ask," Papa smurf said, chuckling a little, "But that is an interesting little smurf of information."

Snappy crossed his arms again. "No, I wanted to ask you three a few questions about Sassette." Papa smurf said, thumbing through a large book.

The three of us looked at eachother. "how has she been otherwise? Has she been eating normally, playing with you more or less?" Papa smurf asked, all seriousness in his face.

I shrugged a little. "She eats like she always does, Papa smurf." I said calmly.

"Bu' she hasn't really been playin' with us as much," Snappy admitted, casting a glance over his shoulder at Smurfette and Sassette. "She gets real tired real easy now."

Nat nodded. "An' she can't run as much." He added, "she always has t' stop an' catch her breath."

I thought for a minute. "she said her arm was sore yesterday," I suggested.

Snappy elbowed me. "Wha' does that have t' do with anythin'?" he asked.

"I dunno," I said with a shrug, "I'm not a doctor."

Papa smurf scratched his beard thoughtfully. "Hmm…" he reflected, walking to Sassette.

He put his hand on her forehead. "She isn't smurfing a fever, either. This is most peculiar indeed." He lamented, looking real worried.

He sighed a little, then turned and walked back to his potions table. "I will have to visit Homnibus to see if he has any idea what could be afflicting our little Sassette." He said, putting some of his potions and books in his bag. "I made an extra potion in case she has another one of these attacks. I should be back before tomorrow. Brainy, can you please keep an eye on that growth formula I'm distilling for Farmer?"

A bespectacled smurf poked his head up from behind the mountain of books, beaming in pride. "Oh, yes, Papa smurf! Why, I'd be honored to!" he said, walking around the mountain of books, "It's like I was saying to you just the other day-"

Papa smurf gave him a look that just said "quit while you're ahead", quickly shutting the blabbermouth up for once. Papa smurf walked back to Sassette and ruffled her hat a little in farewell. Then he turned to us. "Take good care of Sassette while I'm gone, smurflings." He said, all seriousness in his voice.

We three nodded in understanding. "Yes Papa smurf." We chorused.

He smiled a little. "Good." He said, ruffling our hats. "I will be back as soon as possible."

He closed the door behind him, then quickly made his way to Feathers's nest. We watched him out the window, and waited for the big white crane to take off. he waved goodbye to us, then urged Feathers skyward. With a ruffle of her feathers, the large crane lept into the air and pumped her great wings. she flew high in the air, soon disappearing from our sight. "I hope they come back soon..." I muttered.

Nat and Snappy nodded.


	3. What if?

**(Slouchy)**

Sassette slept soundly, her ears twitching in dreamy bliss. Smurfette sat next to her, still stroking her shiny hair. I sat on the wooden stool next to her and watched Smurfette. Somehow, she looked exhausted. We smurflings were the ones who were kept up all night by Sassette's coughing. Yet she looked drained emotionally, physically, and mentally. As if the energy to sit and comfort her adopted younger sister was just too much to smurf.

Farmer cast a glance between Smurfette and Sassette and started to stand. "Orright, you boys." He said, wringing his hands a bit, "Time t' get back out to th' fields."

We shook our heads almost in sync. "Aww, we wanna stay!" Snappy declared.

Farmer hauled us all up by the waistbands of our pants. "An' if y'wanna eat in th' winter, y'all'll help me get th' crops harvested." He said firmly, "Gwan, _GIT!_"

Snappy grumbled, dragging his feet out the door. I shot a quick glance at Smurfette and Sassette, and grudgingly followed them. On the walk back to the fields, Snappy was mumbling under his breath, Nat was staring at the ground and Farmer… well he didn't look like he had much emotion at all at the moment. "How come we had t' leave, Farmer!" Snappy said at last, "Sassette's our friend too! Not JUST Smurfette's!"

Farmer took a deep breath, "There's more to it, Snappy." He said plainly.

"What more is there to it?" Nat asked, sounding sadly confused, "Sassette's our friend. Sassette is also Smurfette's friend. Then we have t' go, an' Smurfette stays?"

"Yeah," I said, "Tha' doesn' sound very fair."

Farmer stopped walking. "You kids're prolly too young t' understand…" he muttered.

"Wha's there t' understand?" Snappy asked, losing whatever patience he has.

Farmer turned around, a sad, solemn look on his face. "They're 'doptive _SISTERS_." He said plainly.

We all shrugged. "Yeah, so?" I said, "Nat n' Snappy're my 'dopted brothers."

"Tha's diff'rent, shugah." Farmer said, finding a stump to sit on, "Smurfette an' Sassette are th' only two girls, right?"

We all nodded. "Bu' Sassette acts more like _US_ than Smurfette." Nat added.

"Even so," Farmer explained, "Now, Ah dunno bout girls too much, but this much Ah do know: women like t' bond with other women. Then, they're _fiercely_ loyal t' true female an' female friendships. An' a _sisterhood_ is like friendship on _FIRE_... Just 'magine how close tha' is."

I couldn't imagine a bond like that with anyone. I'd never really thought about it that way… I knew Smurfette and Sassette were real close and all… Sassette really admired her, and Smurfette was always real close to Sassette. But I had no idea that friendship was so… _Powerful_…

Snappy muttered in defeat. Farmer stood from his seat on the stump. "_NOW_ do you understand?" he asked.

We nodded a little, though I really don't think I did. "Good. Then y' see, they need some time, jus' them two." He added, "B'sides… we need t' get th' crops in th' silo if we're gon' make it through th' winter."

I'd almost forgotten about winter… The summer was just ending. It was almost fall. Then Brainy was gonna start smurfing us with all his dumb "lessons" and school stuff. Not looking forward to that.

The four of us worked out in the fields, mostly silently, for a few hours. It wasn't too long before we heard Greedy's dinner triangle ringing in the village. "You kids go'n wash up," Farmer said, taking off his gloves and tossing them into the wheelbarrow, "Ah'm gon' go check on Sassette."

Snappy, Nat and I were pretty much silent when we washed our hands and faces. Normally we'd all be fighting over the washbasin and the mirror behind it, but instead things were just… _Quieter_… More serious… With Sassette being so sick and all… That's how it'd been for the last two weeks or so... She never had the energy to come play with us, so we couldn't play all the make-believe games that involved her… And the ones we made up ourselves weren't any fun. We didn't have enough for a fair game of Smurfball, and none of the grown-ups ever wanted to play it with us, so that left that out. Not even our old string-a-lings had an appeal anymore. And when she wasn't feeling too tired to play, she'd always have to take a lot of breaks to catch her breath. And that cough… It'd become almost a permanent thing with her. Some nights she couldn't even sleep because she just couldn't stop coughing. I felt so bad for her… I wished she'd feel better…

"Les' go check on Sassette." Nat said once we'd all washed up.

Snappy and I agreed that'd be a good thing to do. We left the bunkhouse and started walking to Papa smurf's lab, still not saying much. Once we'd reached Papa smurf's house, we found the windows dark. "Gimmie a boost!" Snappy said, putting his hands on the windowsill.

Nat twined his fingers to make a step for Snappy and tried to hoist him up. Snappy heaved himself up so he could look in the window. "See anything?" Nat asked, still holding him up.

Snappy shook his head. "Nuh-uh!" he said, "They musta gone t' dinner."

Nat let him down and cracked his knuckles. "_Geez!_ Ya really oughta smurf a little weight, Snappy!" he complained.

"Aw, lay off, Nat!" Snappy stuck his tongue out at him. "Gram'pa says I'm big for my age!"

"If you're big for your age, then I'm a _hedgehog_ that _flies!_" Nat retorted.

"Guys… Can't we jus' go get dinner?" I yawned.

They did this all the time. Nothing new. But somehow, I just didn't feel patient enough to listen to it. They both nodded and started walking away. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and followed them at a slower pace. We all walked to Greedy's mess hall. I pushed the big wooden doors, letting them swing wide open with a loud creak. My eyes wandered to our normal table. Sassette was sitting there, Smurfette just next to her. She looked just as she did this morning, much more vibrant and full of life. She saw us and immediately stood up. She ran right over to us, a big smile on her face. She took us to the ground in some form of tackle-hug. "Hi, guys!" she hummed contentedly.

Snappy rubbed his tail. "Oww, Sassette! Tha' hurt!" he grumbled.

I smiled a little and rolled my eyes. "Howlin' honeybadgers! I'm sorry, Snappy!" she apologized helping us up. "I jus' had the scariest dream when I was sleepin…"

"Wha' kinda dream?" I asked, stepping in line behind Nat and Snappy.

"A real scary one, Slouchy!" she closed her eyes in memory. "I was in a big, white room… an' there was all these… these _things_ in white coats! They had these masks… an' they took me, an had me smurfed down to'a big, white bed… "She shuttered in memory, "Then I- I saw you… an' Nat, an' Snappy…"

Nat and Snappy turned around at the mention of their names. "An- an- an- y'tried t' smurf me outta there… b-but-!" her voice caught in her throat. "Th—_They took you away from me!_"

Her knees shook a little and she whimpered, remembering it. I don't know why, but I felt like I had to. I reached out for her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Don' cry, Sassette." I said, "We're right here. We're not goin' anywhere."

She looked up at me, and used the back of her hand to wipe her eyes. "Thanks, Slouchy." She smiled a little. "You guys're th' smurfiest."

**(Smurfette)**

I watched the smurflings chatting and conversing, loud and animated like always.

_Like when before Sassette was so sick…_

"You seem anxious, Smurfette," Vanity shook me from my thoughts, watching me in his mirror.

"Yeah," Hefty added, "You've barely touched your food."

I turned my attention from the chattering smurflings to my friend that sat directly to my right. "Oh, Vanity, Hefty…" I muttered, "I feel so nervous… with Sassette being so… so…"

I couldn't even finish the thought. "What if something happens to her, Vanity?" I asked, "I- I- I don't know _what _I'd do!"

"Oh, pish- smurfs, Smurfette," he said, giving me a little hug around the waist, "You know as well as I do that Papa smurf'll have an antidote for her. It's just a matter of time."

I sighed a little, tilting my head a little so it rested against his shoulder. "I guess you're right…" I murmured.

He nudged me a little. "_Naturally,_ Smurfette." He boasted.

I smiled a little, then moved my head from his shoulder and ate another bite of roll and spoonful of soup. I watched as Nat made a goalpost with his thumbs and forefingers. Sassette sat across from him and held a small square of bread to the table with her index finger. With one simple flick of her other finger, she fired the square of bread across the table, through the little goalpost Nat had set up. The "goal" was celebrated by all the smurflings, and rewarded by some roughhousing and loud hoots and hollers.

I smiled a little and laughed. The four of them were always so happy and lively! Even in situations like these… The four smurflings were met with a disapproving finger waggle from Brainy. "Smurflings, smurflings, _smurflings,_" he chastised. "Food is _not_ for playing!"

"You're right," Sassette said, tossing and catching the remainder of her roll in her hand, "it's for smurfing _BRAINYS!_"

She tore of a piece of the roll, then started pelting Brainy with the pieces. The other three smurflings followed suit, laughing and firing more pieces of bread at Brainy. Brainy shielded his face to protect his glasses. "_Aah!_! You smurflings are sure gonna be in trouble when Papa smurf smurfs _THIS!_" He squealed slightly, backing away.

"When Papa smurf hears about _what,_ Brainy?" I heard a familiar voice.

Brainy turned around, only to see Papa smurf standing behind him, a slightly amused look on his face. His face had the same cheery look he'd always had. But somehow, his stance, the look in his eyes, it just… _Didn't seem right_… "_Papa smurrrf_!" Brainy whined, pointing at the smurflings. "They were throwing food at me!" he tattled.

Snappy rolled his eyes a little and sheepishly studied his reflection in his soup. Nat looked away with a wide smirk. Slouchy yawned and smiled smugly. Sassette looked up at Papa smurf with doe-like eyes. "Gallopin' grasshoppers, Brainy! We're real sorry we were throwin' food at you," She wrung her hands, keeping her eyes wide and innocent-looking. "We jus' wanted t' play with ya! You understand, right Pappy?"

Papa smurf practically froze when her gaze rested on him. He smiled widely and patted Sassette on the shoulder, chuckling a little. Before he could get his two pennies in, Brainy chimed in. "Oh, Papa smurf! You can't REALLY smurf for that innocent act!" he said disbelievingly.

"It's _not _an act, Brainy!" she pouted, looking hurt.

Brainy raised an eyebrow disbelievingly. Papa smurf chuckled a little, and gave Brainy a little nudge. "Oh, Brainy. Where's your sense of humor?" he smiled.

It seemed to take all his effort to look back at Sassette. "Now, are you really, _honestly_ sorry?" he asked her.

She nodded firmly. "I sure am, Pappy!" she said.

Papa smurf gave her a little pat and smiled. "There we go. Smurf hands and make up." He gestured to Brainy.

Brainy grumbled as he reached out for Sassette's little hand. He stormed off in my direction, muttering under his breath. "_Hmmph!_ She's got him smurfed around her little finger!" he muttered.

Papa smurf gestured for Sassette to go back to her friends, and the smurflings continued their little game as if nothing had happened. Papa smurf watched them a moment, a certain look of sorrow in his eyes. Something was _definitely_ wrong. Every single fiber of my female intuition was screaming that something was very, _very_ wrong. I could just feel it… Papa smurf started walking away from the smurflings table (having tried and failed a round or two of the game himself of course) and approached me, that same lost look in his eyes. "Good evening, Smurfette." He said, smiling casually.

"Hi Papa smurf." I smiled back. "What'd Homnibus have to say?"

He seemed to cringe for a moment, then averted his eyes when he answered. "Ehm—_plenty…_" he muttered, "Smurfette, would you mind coming to my lab after supper? We have urgent matters to discuss."

My stomach twisted into a tight knot. "Em—sure, Papa smurf…" I said plainly, a concerned look crossing my features, "Is something unsmurfy, Papa smurf?"

He cast a seemingly pained glance back at the smurflings, who had abandoned their new game for a friendly game of "Down by the Banks". "Something is _very _unsmurfy, smurfette…" Papa smurf murmured quietly.

That knot that had twisted itself up in my belly seemed to set itself on fire. "What's the matter then?" I asked, shifting on the bench so that I completely faced him. "_What's wrong with my little sister?_"

Papa smurf looked away at the mention of Sassette. "Now's neither the time, nor the place, Smurfette." he whispered, gesturing to the rest of the smurfs, "I'll tell you after supper."

He hurried away to the line, looking almost…. Scared? No. That's not like Papa smurf… I thought to myself, feeling my anxiety growing. Hefty, who'd been listening to most of the exchange, put a hand on my shoulder, and hugged me slightly. "Hey…. _Hey_…" he said gently squeezing me, "_It'll be all right… You'll see…_"

_I hoped and prayed he was right…_

I couldn't finish the rest of my soup having spoken to Papa smurf. I couldn't put the thought that something could be really, really wrong with Sassette out of my head. Once the others had started dispersing, I brought my bowl to Greedy. "Hey! Smurfette! You didn't even finish your soup!" he said, sounding surprised, "I made your favorite- barley-vegetable. "

I distractedly looked back at him. I probably hurt his feelings. Yet he looked more confused than hurt. "Oh, the soup was smurfy, Greedy." I assured him with a genuine smile, "but… I… I just have a lot smurfing my mind right now… I just wasn't all that hungry…"

Greedy bit his lip a little and looked at the dishes in the tub. "Don't s'pose it's anything I can help with?" he shrugged, his hand absentmindedly wandering for an unclaimed dinner roll.

I smiled a little and shook my head. "It's okay, Greedy. _Really_. Or at least it'll _BE _okay…" I said, wishing I could believe myself.

He watched me leave, concern in his eyes. I stopped for a minute at the smurflings table, watching them actually EAT their food instead of flicking it at each other. Sassette seemed to notice my presence, because she turned around and gave me one of her famous wide smiles. "Hi, Smurfette!" she chimed happily.

_She looks so happy… Could she really be as sick as we think_? "Hi, Sassette." I smiled back.

She kept her smile, until a little coughing chased it away. It was over fast, but still sounded awful. I felt my heart sink a little deeper with every little dry cough. She turned back to me, a weaker smile than before. "I- I have to go, Sassette," I tore myself away, trying not to feel guilty for such a hasty retreat. "See you later."

I hurried along to Papa smurf's lab, hoping he'd have better news than I thought. I approached the red- and-white topped mushroom bungalow, then knocked on the door lightly. I waited for a moment, and the door opened up. Papa stood in the doorway, an anxious look in his eyes. "Ah, Smurfette, please come in." he said, inviting me inside.

I stepped through the doorway, then closed the door behind me. I found comfort in the familiar sounds of bubbling potions and the crackle of the fire in the hearth. The whole lab seemed in a state of disarray, little to no rhyme or reason as to where things were left. That too was a strangely familiar sight, seeing as Papa smurf had a hundred warm bodies to look after and little time to himself. With a loud scrape of chair over floor, Papa smurf pulled a chair out next to him. "You'd… You'd best sit down for this, Smurfette." He said, solemnly.

My anxiety was growing by the minute. I sat slowly on the chair, and Papa smurf sat down just across from me. "I… I went to see Homnibus today," he reminded me, "He thinks it may be something very serious."

My heart was breaking with each passing second. "Wh—What could it be…?" I asked, "could it be a…. a…"

My voice caught in my throat. "…_Consumption_…?" I could barely even whisper.

My vision became cloudy with tears. My heart pounded in my chest. Papa smurf put his hands on mine. "No, no, Smurfette." He assured me, "Everysmurf in the village has already been immunized against tuberculosis."

I breathed a miniscule sigh of relief. There was _no_ illness worse than tuberculosis. "So then what did Homnibus suggest we do?" I asked, shaking myself from my numb anxiety.

"He's recommended we visit the Miraguans."

"Th- the _Miraguans_…?" I asked, my heart sinking into my chest. "It- It's really that bad…?"

He nodded. A long while ago, before Gargamel ever created me and I joined the village, the smurfs were almost wiped out by a strange illness, to which no one seemed to smurf a cure for. But a kingdom far away over the mountains called Miraqua managed to save them with their progressive medical and technological advances in exchange for occasional help regarding Papa smurf's magical expertise.

Papa smurf moved his hands from mine and scratched his beard in thought. There was a quiet knock on the door. "Y-Yes, come in," Papa smurf called.

The door opened with a quiet click. Brainy stuck his head inside and swiveled his head to see Papa smurf. "Ah, Brainy." He said, faking a smile. "Did you smurf what I asked?"

"Oh, yes, Papa smurf!" Brainy beamed, "Sassette's right here, just like I said I'd brought her. I said I brought her, and I did! You can allllways count on me, Papa smurf, because its-"

"Thank you, Brainy," Papa smurf politely cut him off before he went into one of his monologues. "Would you smurf me another favor, and ehm- go help Greedy with the supper dishes?"

The disappointment was written all over the bespectacled smurf's face. "Yes, Papa smurf." He drudged out, dissatisfied with the task ahead.

Sassette rushed through the door excitedly, slamming the door behind her and running right over to Papa smurf. "Hi, Pappy!" she chimed happily.

"Hello, Sassette." He smiled a little.

"Brainy tol' me you needed t' talk t' me…" she said, putting her hands behind her back and fidgeting her foot a little. "M' I in trouble for smurfin' Brainy with bread earlier?"

Papa smurf chuckled a little, shaking his head. "No, no, Sassette, you're not in trouble…" he said, "but I…. I have something to tell you..."

She planted her bottom on a little stool, and looked up at Papa smurf, her eyes wide and head tilted. Papa smurf seemed to force himself to look into her eyes. "I… I visited Homnibus today…" he said solemnly.

Sassette smiled a little. "Happy hippos, Pappy!" she chimed, "How is he?"

Papa smurf smiled a little at her and ruffled her hat. "He is very well, Sassette." He said, a look of pain in his eyes. "B-but… I'm afraid I may have some bad news…"

Sassette's smile disappeared, and she tilted her head. "H-Homnibus…. Thinks that something may be very… Unsmurfy… Going on… A-and he's said it would be best if we visited the doctors that helped us a long time ago…" Papa smurf said to the smallish smurfling, fighting tears.

Sassette looked scared. No, I could practically feel it, she was _terrified._ Her eyebrows were arched in almost a confused worry. Her bottom lip was upturned, and her head was at an angle. "I-it might be best if we leave first thing tomorrow…" Papa smurf said, taking her hand and giving it a little squeeze. "It _will_ be all right, Sassette."

Her bottom lip twitched a little, and she sniffled a little bit. Papa smurf already knew what would come next. He schooched his chair nearer to her and wrapped her in his arms, rocking a little and soothing the child. "It'll be _alright_, my little Sassette… _It'll be alright…_." He shushed her.

Sassette's little girl tears finally started to ebb, and she sniffled a little. "Feeling a little better now?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound nearly as dumb as I thought I did.

She nodded a little, but didn't stop sniffling. "W-we must prepare for the journey, Sassette." I said, taking her hand. "Come on…"

She sniffled some more and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. She and I walked back to the bunkhouse, where the smurflings were playing with some of their wooden toys. "Hiya, Sassette!" Nat said, sending a folded paper bird her way.

Sassette ducked out of the way of the paper toy and walked to the dresser. She was mostly silent as she opened her drawers and rooted around for clean overalls. "W'smatter?" Snappy asked, confused. "Why're you packin' stuff?"

I took the boys to the far side of the bunkhouse and explained the situation as delicately as I knew how. By the time I was done explaining, all three boys looked scared and sad. "Well, move over, Sassette!" Snappy said, walking right over to the dresser and opening another drawer. "We're goin' t' Mirasg… Mirgua… We're goin' t' tha' doctor place too!"

"Yeah," Slouchy added, moving around Snappy to a drawer right next to his feet. "We're goin' too."

Nat joined the other two boys and started rooting through a drawer at Sassette's knees. She smiled at her friends and immediately started roughhousing with them a little. "Well- ehm- I suppose I'd best let Papa smurf know we'll have a few more joining us, then." I laughed a little, letting them "pack."

**(Slouchy)**

In a little while, it was bedtime. Papa smurf came into our room and tucked us all in, like he did every night. "Papa smurf, will you read us a story?" Nat asked, sitting up above me in his bunk.

"Not tonight, Nat." Papa smurf said, "You smurflings need a good full night's sleep for tomorrow."

"Bu' we're not…. We're not tired…" Snappy said sluggishly.

Papa smurf chuckled a little as he tucked him in. "Of course you're not, Snappy." He said, amused.

Papa smurf tucked me in, and I nestled tiredly under the covers. "G'nite, Papa smurf." I muttered tiredly.

He chuckled a little in reply, and ruffled my hat. "Goodnight, Slouchy." He said softly. "Smurfy dreams."

He went to Sassette's bunk and tucked her in too. She yawned widely, then gave Papa smurf a big hug. "G'nite Pappy…" she yawned, "see y' in th' morning…"

"Goodnight, Sassette." He said smiling slightly.

He walked to the door and blew out the candle. "Goodnight, my little smurflings. Smurfy dreams."

It wasn't very long until I was finally asleep. But sometime during the night I got woken up by a loud noise. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but the noise persisted. I sat up in my bed and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I tried to figure out what the noise was. Then I realized: _Sassette was coughing again_. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and looked up at Sassette's bunk. She was sitting up, facing the wall, and coughing. I got out of bed and climbed up to where she was sitting. "Sassette?" I said.

She turned around to face me. She looked… So unlike the Sassette I knew… her skin looked pale and sickly… She had dark circles under her eyes. She had wrapped herself up in her blanket, but she looked cold. "S-Slouchy…" she rasped. "Did I… did I wake you up?"

I nodded a little and climbed up onto the bed with her. "It's ok, Sassette." I said, trying to hold back a yawn. "Sorry you don' feel good."

She turned towards me and wrapped herself in the blanket. "Need me t' go get Papa smurf?" I asked.

She shook her head and sighed a little. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat next to me. "I'm scared, Slouchy..." she said, her voice cracking a little, "I'm _real_ scared…"

She sniffled a little. "Wh- wha'f somethin' really _is_ wrong with me?" she asked, "Wha'f… _wha'f I_….?" she couldn't even finish.

She sniffled more and started crying a little bit into her blanket. I patted her on the back. "Please don' cry, Sassette." I said, feeling a weird ache in my tummy, "It'll be ok… I _promise_…"

She dried her eyes and leaned against me, putting her head on my shoulder. "Th-thanks Slouchy…" she muttered. "Better not forget tha' promise."

I blushed a lot. She just… looked so _scared_… This felt so _wrong_…. She's only 130 years old, and she's gotta be scared about _this…_? I wished there was more I could smurf to make her feel better.

She sat there with her head on my shoulder, coughing occasionally, for a little while longer. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't fall back asleep. "Are you sure you don' wan' me t' go get Papa smurf?" I asked her.

She shook her head no. She'd lost her voice sometime during the night. But the hug she gave me and the sad look in her eyes said what she couldn't. _Please don't go… I'm scared…_ I squeezed her hand. "Don' worry… I won' go." I told her.

She breathed a silent sigh and sniffled a little more. I did my best to comfort her, but I guess that really wasn't smurfing very much. It wasn't too long before the sun shone through the window of the bunkhouse. Papa smurf came in to wake us all up and get us ready for the journey. He noticed me and Sassette sitting together on her bed and arched his eyebrows in a confused and a bit shocked look. "Sassette woke up coughin'," I explained, "an' couldn' fall back asleep… I jus'… stayed up."

Papa smurf sighed a little. "You should have gotten me, Slouchy," He said, gently shaking Snappy, "I would've brought her something to help."

"It was late… she didn' wan' wake anyone up." I shrugged.

Papa smurf nodded a little, then took Sassette's hand. "It's time to get ready to go, Sassette."

Sassette buried her face a little in the blanket she was wrapped up in before she climbed down from the bed to get dressed. She got her pink overalls and went behind her changing scrim. I got some clothes from my drawer and faced the wall as Papa smurf woke up Nat and Snappy and left to go find Feathers. We all got dressed in silence, then got the backpacks we'd packed the night before. We all walked to the village square, still not saying anything. We arrived at the village square where Feathers sat, cleaning her downy feathers with her long orange beak. Sassette walked up to the crane and snuggled a little in her soft down. Feathers cooed and ruffled her white feathers.

Soon we saw Smurfette and Papa smurf approach, both carrying traveling backpacks. They started attaching a travel harness to Feathers's back. Nat sat by the white bird's head, petting it gently and whispering to her. Snappy sat in the grass, picking little pieces of grass and tearing them between his fingers. I just sat next to him and closed my eyes. I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around, holding my hat on my head so it wouldn't fall off. Farmer and Vanity were approaching the village square. Farmer was carrying a backpack over his shoulder and talking to Vanity. "R'member, shugah. Th' eggplant _HAS_ t' be harvested b'fore th' end'a th' week. Otherwise they'll wither." Farmer said, moving the pack on his shoulder.

"Okay, Farmer," Vanity said, fixing the flower in his hat and watching his reflection in his mirror. "It'll get taken care of."

Farmer put down his backpack next to Feathers. "Okai, shugah." He said.

With a couple of clicking noises, the light harness was safely secured to Feathers. "Right. Time for us to go." Papa smurf said, tying all our bags down to the harness.

Snappy looked up from his grass- picking and scattered his pile of grass pickings. He stood up and climbed up on Feathers's back. Nat helped Sassette up and they tied themselves down. I tried to climb up, but I was too short to reach. Farmer gave Vanity a hug, whispering in his ear. Vanity rested his head on his chest, talking quietly back to him. Farmer gave him a squeeze, then started walking to Feathers. "Need a boost, Shugah?" he asked me with a small smile.

"Yeah." I replied.

He gave me a little boost so I could reach the harness, then climbed up with me. I secured myself to the harness and yawned. Papa smurf sat at the front. "Is everysmurf ready?"

We all nodded in reply. Feathers flapped her wings and leapt into the air, going higher and higher up. I held on tight and held my hat against my head. Soon enough, she stopped getting higher, and glided above the clouds. "We have a long journey ahead of us," Papa smurf said, turning back to face us. "Slouchy, you and Sassette had best get some rest."

We sure didn't need to be told twice. Sassette fell asleep real quick, and I did too.


	4. Not Okay

**(Slouchy)**

I felt a hand shaking me awake. "Slouchy… Slouchy wake up, ya hickory nut!" I heard the scratchy voice of Nat in my ear.

I opened my eyes. It was close to nighttime. The sun was just starting to set. "We're almost there, my little smurflings!" Papa smurf called to us.

I had to squint to see the kingdom. The castle walls were pure white, high and jagged. Feathers made a slow descent to the drawbridge of the castle. Once she finally touched ground, she cawed and stretched out her wing so we could slide down. Nat whispered soft words and patted her head. Feathers cooed in reply, then started to take off again. "Stay close, Feathers! We may need you again soon." Papa smurf called to the big crane as she flew away to find a place to roost.

We approached the drawbridge. On the other side of the moat, two guards stood. "Who goes there?" one asked.

"I am Papa smurf, leader of the Red Mushroom Smurf Tribe. These are my travel companions, Farmer, Smurfette and the Smurflings." Papa smurf introduced us. "And we have urgent business with the king."

"I see." The guard nodded, his armor creaking slightly with every move he made, "Lower the drawbridge!"

The drawbridge slowly came down, making a safe path over the moat. The gate on the other side rose too, letting us into the castle. Then, a real tallish page wearing expensive looking clothing met us inside the castle. "Ah, Papa smurf!" he said, holding out his hand to Papa smurf, "It is so good to see you again, even given the circumstances."

"Likewise, Elias." Papa smurf said, shaking his hand, "My little smurfs, this is Elias, royal page to the king."

He had light blue skin, a lighter color than us smurfs. He didn't look too much taller than Farmer, but he was really, really thin, so I guess that's what made him look so tall. And he had tattoos on his face. Big, detailed tattoos. I tried really hard not to stare. But they were so… so—"_Leapin' Lizards_!" Sassette gaped, "Your tattoos are so strange!"

I guess that was when she got her voice back. "Sassette!" Smurfette scolded her, "That was not very smurfy!"

"Oh, no it's quite alright," The page said, kneeling down to her eye level. "I suppose to you, they are rather strange. If I recall correctly, there's only one smurf in your village with tattoos."

Sassette nodded. "Mmhmm! Hefty!" she said with a smile. "He's the strongest smurf in th' whole village!"

I think she would've talked a lot longer if it weren't for Papa smurf. "Ah, Elias, I'm afraid we have urgent business with his majesty… If you would be so kind…?"

"Ah, yes! Terribly sorry, Papa smurf! I have a tremendous soft spot for children," Elias smiled and ruffled Sassette's hair. "I will show you to the king right away!"

He led us down wide hallways with lots of tapestries and suits of armor, and eventually led us to a really big wooden door. "I shall let him know you've arrived." Elias said, opening the door slightly and shutting it quickly behind him.

Smurfette kneeled down and started dusting us off and fixing our clothes so we looked good when we saw the king. "Now remember," She said, straightening Snappy's hat a little, "You have to be very polite to the king. No wise-smurfs or backtalk, and you HAVE to stand still! Sassette, please don't say anything about his tattoos, alright? Papa smurf says that all of the Miraguans have tattoos on their faces, but it's still rude to point them out like that."

Sassette was still a bit humbled from making her last observation. "Alright," she mumbled.

"Good," Smurfette said, smiling at her and brushing some lint off her overalls.

Before she could say any more, the door opened again. "Papa smurf?" Elias spoke quietly, "King Ric'alla will see you now."

The doors swung open and revealed a gigantic room with a really, really tall ceiling. It was white inside, like the outside walls, and had lots of paintings and tapestries hanging. A dark red carpet led to a large throne, where a Miraguan with long black hair up in a tall ponytail and a gold-colored crown sat. "That mus' be th' king," I whispered to Nat.

Once we stopped walking inside, all us guy smurfs kneeled and bowed our heads. I peeked over at Snappy, but saw he was still marveling at the vastness of the room. "Snappy!" I whispered, elbowing him.

He turned his attention to me, then quickly kneeled. Sassette and Smurfette curtsied politely, smiling. "Rise, noble smurfs," The king spoke, "What brings you to our humble kingdom, Papa smurf?"

Papa smurf slowly and respectfully rose from his knee. "Unfortunate circumstances, I'm afraid, old friend." He said, solemnly, "One of our smurflings is sick, and neither I nor Homnibus know what it is."

"I see," The king said, nodding his head in understanding.

Sassette started coughing again, really, really hard this time. Nat held her up and patted her back, helping her suffer through the coughing fit. It took a few minutes before she stopped coughing, and her voice was all scratchy when she was done. "I suppose I do not have to ask who it is, then," The king said, rising from his throne.

He descended down the stairs, a long cloak fluttering behind him. He approached Sassette and bent down to her level. "What is your name, little one?"

Sassette studied him with wide, owlish eyes and curtsied respectfully, "M-my name's Sassette, Your Mag'sty" she said.

"I see… and how old are you, Sassette," The king smiled kindly at her.

"Im'a hundred an' thirty years ol' Your Mag'sty!" she beamed proudly.

"Ah, I see… I have a daughter that looks just like you." The king said, ruffling her hair slightly.

Sassette looked at him with wide eyes, "_Flyin' flatfish_! Does she have pretty tattoos, _too_?" She asked, forgetting her promise to Smurfette.

Snappy elbowed her. "Oops!" she said, realizing her mistake, then curtsying again, "I'm real sorry, Your Mag'sty. That wasn' very smurfy of me t' ask."

The king chuckled a little, then patted her head, "It's quite alright, little one. You've never been to Miragua, after all." He said, smiling a little, "No, she doesn't have tattoos, not yet. She's not old enough."

"Oh," Sassette replied.

The king stood at his full height, then spoke in a strange language to a nearby guard. "My guards will show you to the royal infirmary, Papa smurf." He said, motioning towards the guards.

Sassette tilted her head a little. She looked up at Farmer, who was standing next to her. "Farmer? Wha'sa 'firmary?" she asked.

Farmer looked sad for a moment, then blinked a lot and bit his lip. His small smile looked weak and like it took a lot to keep it. "It's a hospital, shugah… We're gon' find out wha's matter with you." He assured her.

Sassette looked at the floor. "_Oh…_" she said, sounding scared again.

The king's guards led us outside, through a big village just outside the palace. There were Miraguans everywhere, young old, tattooed and not tattooed. "Papa smurf," I looked up at our leader, "How come some'a them have tattoos, but some don'?"

"It's a custom in Miraqua, Slouchy," Papa smurf explained, "that on their eighteenth birthday, a Miraguan scales that mountain and receives blessings from their goddess. These tattoos tell their whole life's story."

"Wow…" I marveled, then turned to Sassette, "Isn' that neat, Sassette?"

Sassette didn't answer. She watched the ground as we walked, looking scared and sad all at the same time. Something inside me made me put a hand on her shoulder. Snappy and Nat seemed to notice how sad she was, cause they both gave her a little nudge. "What're you so sad 'bout?" Snappy asked, cheekily, "Farmer said we're gon' find out wha's wrong, then you'll get better, an' you kin play with us again. You're gon' _be _ok, so don' go feelin' like you _won'_ be, _ok?_!"

She looked up at us and tried to smile a little. "I'm sorry, Snappy…" she apologized, "I jus' feel scared… tha's all…"

"We're scared _too,_ Sassette," I said, calmly, "Bu' it's no use bein' sad _AN'_ scared. I dunno 'bout th' rest of you, bu' _I don' do sadness_…"

Nat and Snappy agreed. She twirled her red braid nervously in her fingers. "I'll try, Slouchy…" she said, weakly. "But I won' promise you anythin'…"

The guard led us to a big white building. The inside looked sad, and empty. "This's where they go t' feel better?" Nat whispered, "Boy, I wouldn' wanna see where t' go t' feel _worse_."

Him and I shared a snicker, then looked back at Sassette. She sat in between Papa smurf and Smurfette, both of them taking one of her hands and saying quiet things to her to try and make her feel better. A girl Miraguan dressed like a nurse stood in front of us, "Smurfs? The doctor will see you now." She said.

Sassette let go of Papa smurf's hand, then turned to Smurfette. "Kin you come with me, 'stead of the boys?" she asked her weakly.

Smurfette nodded a little and gave her hand a little squeeze. She helped her stand, and slowly walked towards a hallway. "Hey! No fair!" Snappy protested, "How come _Smurfette_ gets t' go?"

Papa smurf stifled a little chuckle, "Would you want Sassette to go with you if the situation was resmurfed?" he asked plainly.

Snappy blushed a deep beet red, "_No…_" he admitted.

Farmer and Papa smurf shared an amused look, then watched as Sassette and Smurfette walked down the hallway.

**(Smurfette) **

Sassette held onto my hand, fear and nervousness making her grip much stronger than normal. The nurse led us into a little gray examination room. There was a table with paper covering it in the center, with chairs and cabinets on either side. Sassette scrambled up onto the table and sat down. "We ask that you take off your overalls, for sanitary reasons," the nurse said.

Sassette gave me a slightly confused look. "She said you have to take off your overalls to keep the room clean." I explained.

"The doctor will be with you shortly." The nurse smiled, leaving the room.

Sassette took off her overalls and sat on the table in her little pink undies. I took the overalls from the ground, then folded them on my lap. We didn't have to wait too long before a doctor came into the room. She had thin rimmed, rectangular glasses and long dark hair, pulled up in a messy bun. Her tattoos were gentle figures, sparrows and doves, giving the drab room a pleasant air. "Hello," She smiled warmly, "My name is Doctor Nava, and I'm gonna be trying to find out what's making you feel bad. What's your name?"

"My name's Sassette." Sassette chimed happily.

"Ok, Sassette," the doctor said, moving the stethoscope from around her neck to into her fin-shaped ears, "Can you do me a huge favor and breathe in and out real deep?"

Sassette tried to do as the doctor instructed, but when she breathed in too deep, she'd start coughing. Doctor Nava wrote on a paper attached to a wooden clipboard, then returned her attention to Sassette. She examined her ears, making jokes about how she could see me on the other side, then wrote more on her paper. She examined Sassette's throat and tested her reflexes, then wrote more on her paper. "Okay, sweetie, can you do me another big ol' favor and lie down on your back, please?" Dr. Nava asked.

Sassette laid down on her back. The doctor gently prodded around her torso, examining her internal organs. Sassette flinched a little when she palpated around her left arm and around her chest. "Does it hurt when I do that, Sassette?" Dr. Nava asked gently.

Sassette nodded a little, a small pout on her lips. "Ohh, okay…" she answered, writing more on her paper.

I wondered what it was she was writing… _Good things? Bad things_? "Okay, Sassette," Dr. Nava said, going to a cabinet across from the table, "Now, what I'm going to do next is I'm going to take some of your blood so I can show it to other doctors that will be able to figure out what's making you feel bad."

The doctor took a needle that was shaped like a dragonfly and a rubber tourniquet from the drawer and closed it with a quiet click. Sassette squirmed a little; she doesn't like needles. Then again, who does? Dr. Nava tied the tourniquet tightly around her upper arm, then swabbed the inside of her elbow with a little white cotton ball. Sassette whimpered a little bit, squeezing my hand. As soon as the needle pierced the skin, she bit her lip a little. "_Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow_!" she whimpered quietly.

"_Shh_… It's almost over…" I assured her.

It wasn't very long before Dr. Nava had filled three small vials worth of Sassette's blood, and untied the tourniquet. She taped a little gauze over the needle prick, then put the little vials on the counter. "Ok, I suppose we're all done here." Dr. Nava said, washing her hands in a nearby sink. "You can go ahead and get dressed, and I will be right outside with your family."

She closed the door behind her as she left. I gave Sassette her pink overalls. She put them on, then jumped down from the table. I noticed one of her straps was twisted, and stopped her before she went outside, "Waait, a second," I stopped her, "your strap's all twisted."

I stooped to her level and fixed her overalls. "There we go. That's better." I said, opening the door for her.

She smiled in thanks, then skittered back down the hallway we came from. I followed her back to the waiting room, then took my seat next to Papa smurf and Farmer. Sassette was sitting with her friends, showing off the little gauze on her arm. "Eww, why'd they take blood?" Slouchy asked, twisting his face a little in disgust.

"The Miraguans have technology that use blood to find out what's wrong," Papa smurf explained.

Dr. Nava adjusted one of the chairs so that she sat across from us. "I'm afraid I might have some bad news, smurfs." She said, her sad, sympathetic green eyes glittering.

Sassette looked away from the smurflings, up at Papa smurf. "Pappy? Wha's she mean, _bad news_?" she asked, her eyebrows in a worried slant.

Papa smurf looked at her and gave a little smile, "Ehm- I'm sure it's nothing, Sassette," he tried to sound convincing, "Farmer, perhaps you should take the smurflings back to the palace. We will meet you there."

Farmer nodded his head in understanding, "Orright, kids, les' go." He said, ushering the smurflings out the door to the waiting escort.

Papa smurf watched them go, a sad look on his face. Once they had left, he turned back to Dr. Nava. "Yes? What is it, doctor?" he asked, concerned.

Dr. Nava adjusted her glasses and shifted in her seat. "As a former oncologist, I think it would be my duty to inform you that Sassette shows all the symptoms of something very _dire_ indeed." She said seriously.

Oncologist? "Forgive me, I am not well learned in these… newer sciences," Papa smurf apologized, "What is an _oncologist_?"

"_Cancer_, Papa smurf." She explained, "A doctor who specializes in cancers. It's a very err—for lack of a better term, '_unsmurfy_' disease that affects the body in different ways… And unfortunately, if not found in time can be fatal…"

I felt my heart sink in my chest with every word. _"It seems as though as little Sassette shows almost all of the symptoms of lung cancer."_ She said sadly.

Papa smurf drew a sharp breath, leaning over his knees on his elbows and hiding his face. "For all we know, it may not be cancer, Papa smurf," she said, trying to sound hopeful, "we won't know for certain until we get her blood work back from the labs, and run a couple more tests."

I took a deep breath. "When's the soonest we can get these tests done?" I asked.

Dr. Nava flipped through her papers. "There are openings just after lunch time… the soonest one is at 1:30, down the hall in the oncology department."

Papa smurf hid his face longer, as if he was trying to process everything that was going on. None of this felt real… it was like everything was rushing by in some terrible dream…. Like I was watching everything through someone else's eyes… "Yes… schedule us for 1:30…" Papa smurf said, trying to keep his voice even. "I will not have peace of mind until I know what is afflicting my little smurfling."

The following minutes of paperwork, questions, and other possible diagnoses seemed to be muted in my ears. I couldn't stop running the words over in my head_… It can be fatal…_ I buried my head in my hands and fought tears. _Not Sassette… She doesn't deserve something like this…_ "Smurfette," I heard Papa smurf's voice, "we'd best be smurfing back to the palace…"

I looked up at him, and gave him a little smile and a nod. We stood and started out the door. I cast a glance at Papa smurf. He looked worried, forlorn. "P-Papa smurf…?" I asked, in a voice I couldn't recognize as my own.

He looked up at me, concern in his eyes. "Sh—she'll be okay… right?" I asked, trying to sound hopeful.

Papa smurf sighed a little, then wrapped his arms around me. "I don't know yet, Smurfette." He admitted, his voice heavy, "The best we can do now is smurf a little faith…"

I buried my face in his shoulder and let the tears flow. _It's not fair… Sassette doesn't deserve something like this… She doesn't deserve to have to worry about this… She's only a child…_ Papa smurf and I walked back to the palace, led by an escort. We arrived right at lunch time, where Farmer and the smurflings had sat down to lunch. "Hiya, Pappy!" Sassette chimed loudly, "Wha'd th' doctor wanna talk about?"

Papa smurf tensed up a little. "Ehm—I'll tell you later, Sassette," he said, "how are you smurflings enjoying the palace?"

"Smurfaroo! It's th' smurfiest place ever!" Snappy piped up, nearly knocking his glass over with his excitement, "Th' princess has a big ol' play room, an' she even let us play with her toys!"

"Well! That sounds very smurfy of her," Papa smurf smiled, "You'll have to remember to thank her before we go."

"Yes, Papa smurf." The smurflings chorused happily.

During lunch, the smurflings told us all about the time they spent in the short time they'd spent at the palace in our absence. Once we were finished, Sassette cornered Papa smurf to talk to him. I watched as he told her what the doctor told us. Even from a distance, I could see her fear. I could see her wiping away tears of anxiety. "Wha's wrong with Sassette?" Slouchy asked, looking in her direction. "Why's she cryin'?"

"Yeah," Snappy agreed.

"She was just fine just now." Nat added.

I looked at them, then looked back at Sassette. The little smurfling now hugged Papa smurf, her little smurfling arms trying to reach around him as best as she could. I sighed a bit, then turned back around to the smurflings. "The doctor… she said it may be something _really_ bad…" I said, trying to think of a gentle way to say it. "They need to run a test in a little while so they know what it is…"

There was no way to lightly describe their emotions. All three looked worried. Nat squirmed a little in his place, guiltily and uncomfortably. Snappy had his arms crossed and his eyes pointed at the ground. Slouchy looked numb, yet at the same time, had a certain sleepy- sadness that floated around him.

In an attempt to tear my gaze from theirs, I caught a glimpse of the clock. It was already 1:12. I looked over to Papa smurf. He was still holding Sassette, stroking her hair soothingly. I approached them quietly. "P-Papa smurf…?" I said, sounding and feeling worried, "It-it's almost 1:15…"

He looked up at me and wiped his tired eyes. "Th-thank you, Smurfette," he smiled sadly.

Farmer, who'd been watching the whole time, stood up with the smurfling boys. "C'mon, kids… Les' go with her…" He said softly.

Slouchy's hand found his and gave it a little squeeze, his sleepy-sadness aura mixing with a sense of fear and unease. Snappy found me, and pouted a little before he wrapped his little arms around my waist. "_I'm scared for her, Smurfette_," he admitted.

"I am too, Snappy…" I sighed a little, patting him on the forehead.

We walked to the hospital, escorted by guards again. I watched as the smurflings seemed to subconsciously drift to Sassette, as if they were drawn together by magnetic pull. They didn't actually say anything to her. She didn't say anything to them. Yet somehow, she seemed to look more at ease with them than she ever has when she was with me, or even Farmer or Papa smurf. It was as if being with these three somehow repelled her worry… We reached the hospital all too soon.

**(Slouchy)**

Papa smurf had told us we were going somewhere different for the test, but we still went to the hospital. "But Papa smurf, I thought you said we was gon' be someplace else for th' test?" Nat asked, moving his big straw hat out of his face.

"Oh, no, Nat." Papa smurf suppressed a little chuckle, "we'll still be in the hospital, but a different part of the hospital."

"Oh." He said in reply, stepping around a little snail as he walked, "_That's too bad_…" he added with a mumble.

We walked through the doors, and sat down in the same drab- looking spots we sat in earlier. Snappy sat looking at the ground, bouncing his knee anxiously. Nat sat slumped over, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. Sassette sat in between me and Snappy, playing with her fingers in worry. Papa smurf stood at the front desk, speaking with the Miraguan woman behind the desk. Nobody said anything… It was real quiet in our corner of the waiting room. Papa smurf walked back over to us. "Come with me, my little smurfs," he said, motioning for us to follow, "It's almost time for the test."

Sassette seemed to huddle up around herself and whimper, scared. I patted her on her knee. "C'mon Sassette." I said, "It'll be done soon. Then we can all go home soon."

She looked up at me and tried to smile. We all stood up and walked down the gray hallway. Sassette's hand subconsciously wrapped around Farmer's as they walked down the hall. Nobody said anything, still… everyone walked down the hallway very seriously, not really having anything to say. Papa smurf stopped, then turned into a doorway with a small sign hanging from the end. I didn't recognize the word. It was long, and it was just a strange word to look at. "Farmer?" I looked up at the tan smurf, "Wha's _On-col'gy_?" I tried to sound out the word.

Farmer shrugged. "Yo' smurf's as good as mine, shugah." He said, "Maybe Pa' smurf knows."

Before I could ask Papa smurf, a nurse entered the room and approached him. She spoke to him for a minute, then led us down a hallway. There were little rooms on either side. I glanced through an open door, seeing a Miraguan woman sitting on a bed and holding someone, a kid I think, close to her and sobbing. Somehow it didn't seem right to watch… I turned my head to the other side of the hall. My eyes wandered into another room. Inside this one, there was a male and a female pair embracing and crying. It seemed like every room I could see into there were tears and sadness… _What kind of a place IS this?_

The nurse led us to a large room, with a big white donut- shaped machine thing with some kind of table coming out of the hole. The nurse patted the table. "Okay, Sassette… I'm going to ask you to lay down right up here."

Sassette cautiously climbed up on the table and swung her legs over the edge. "Alright… Now I'm going to ask you to lie down." The nurse added, guiding her head towards the end of the table closest to the doughnut hole.

Sassette laid down on the table and watched us, uncertainty in her eyes. "Now, I want you to lay perfectly still, Sassette." The nurse instructed. "Now what's going to happen is this table is going to move inside this doughnut hole, and it'll take some magic pictures of your lungs, so we can find out what's making you sick… Simple as that!"

She looked a bit more peaceful. That didn't sound _SO_ bad… "Your family and I, we'll be right in the other room…" The nurse said, ushering us into a small room. "Remember. Stay perfectly still!"

The table moved inside the doughnut hole, and made a few bright flashes. Then, the table moved back out of the machine, and came to a stop. "There," the nurse said, shuffling some papers in her hands, "all done."

That sure was fast. We followed her back into the room. "Ok, Sassette, you can get back up. It's all done now." The nurse said, helping her down.

Sassette smiled and stood next to Papa smurf. "Snoopin' snappin' turtles! That wasn't so bad!" she said happily.

The nurse smiled at her, then turned to Papa smurf. "We should have the results and a definitive diagnosis by tomorrow morning." The nurse assured us.

**(Smurfette) **

The guards escorted us back to the palace, where we toured the royal gardens and the rest of the castle. The smurflings spent the remainder of their day playing with Princess Micha, the king's youngest daughter. Supper was like something out of a dream, exquisite food, the music and entertainment was just heavenly, and the wine was like an elixir created by an angel. "Well then," The king said, standing upon concluding his meal, "Care to join me for a brandy, Papa smurf?"

Papa smurf patted his stomach contentedly. "Ah… Yes, please, don't mind if I do, your highness."

He started to stand from his seat, then cast a glance at the smurflings. They looked sleepy and lethargic. "But first… It's past four certain smurflings' bedtimes." He added with a little chuckle.

Snappy, of course, was the first to protest. "Bu' we're not tired!" he pouted.

"Yeah," Slouchy added, "Not-" he yawned widely and covered his mouth, "tired…"

"Come along, little smurflings," Papa smurf said, ushering them towards the door, "Off to bed."

The smurflings grumbled in reply, then pulled out their chairs and started walking to the room. "I'll be in to tuck you in." Papa smurf called after them.

I stood up and followed them. "Sassette," I said.

The female smurfling turned and looked at me, her tired eyes half open and a lazy smile on her face. "Hi, Smurfette," she said.

"Hi," I smiled in return, "Come with me," I added, offering her my hand.

She stared at it for a moment, then took it and walked with me down the hall. The smurfling boys turned into a room they'd been showed to earlier, and Sassette and I turned into one Elias had showed me during the day. The rooms in the palace were very impressive. Something truly fit for royalty. Sassette and I changed into our nightgowns. "Here, sit right here." I said, patting a little stool in front of a vanity.

She looked at me with a tilted head, and sat down on the little stool. I took off her hat, and put it on the edge of the Vanity. Then I took out the little black hair bands that held her braids, and put them on my right wrist. I used my fingers to comb through her soft braids, unraveling them. "Your hair's so pretty, Sassette," I told her, "And it's gotten so long."

Unbraided, her hair fell just below her shoulders. "Thanks," she smiled a little and watched me in the reflection.

I took a hairbrush from the edge of the vanity and gently ran it through her hair. Since she always kept it braided, it was very wavy, and didn't have many knots. And for as much time as she spent down in the dirt playing with the boys, her hair was very clean and shiny- looking. I suppose that was the only thing she was even moderately "girly" about- minus her "Smurfy Lou" doll that Tailor made her. Then again, even that doll went on some interesting-and dirty- adventures with her and the boys. "Smurfette? How do you keep your hair so straight?" she asked, admiring my gold- colored hair.

I shrugged my shoulder a little, absentmindedly brushing her soft hair. "Brushing it," I said, "I use a conditioner the Pussywillow Pixies gave me, little things like that."

"Ohh…" she said.

She was quietly watching me brush out the little knots. "Smurfette? Will I ever have as pretty hair as _you_?" she asked, watching me brush her auburn locks.

I smiled at her a little. She already did. "I think you _defiantly_ will…"

She was quiet for a moment, watching the brush with tired eyes. She jerked away for a moment and started coughing into her fist. I stopped brushing her hair and looked in my travel backpack. There was a white hankie at the top, next to one of my dresses. I took it out, then gave it to Sassette. She kept coughing harder and harder for a few more moments before it finally started getting better. She looked at the handkerchief and froze. Her hand was trembling and her face had turned nearly white. "_S-S-S-Smurfette!"_ she squeaked.

She turned around and threw her arms around my waist. I sat on the bench next to her and held her head close to me, rocking a little bit. She sobbed little girl tears into the shoulder of my nightgown. "_Shh… shh_… What's wrong, Sassette?" I whispered.

She sniffled and whimpered a bit, then moved her hand and showed me the handkerchief. It had little spots of blood on the white cotton fabric. My heart nearly stopped in my chest. She snuffled and sniffled a little and kept her face buried in my shoulder. "_Oh, Sassette…_" I said softly, trying to blink away tears, "I- I- It'll be okay…. We're going to find out what's wrong… A-a-and we'll fix it… I—_I promise…"_

She held onto me tightly, sniveling and crying her little eyes out. I held her in my arms, rocking and _shh_-ing her a little bit_. She doesn't deserve to be so scared… she's just a little girl… she hasn't even lost all her baby teeth yet and she has to be worried about illness…? It's just not fair…_

We stayed like that for a few minutes, until her sobs finally started to cease. She sniffled more and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Sm-Sm-Smurfette?" she sniffled.

"Yes, Sassette?" I replied, stroking her hair.

"C-c-can you finish braiding my hair…?" She asked, "I-I-I'm real tired…"

"Okay…" I said, giving her one last squeeze and picking up the brush again.

I stood up and stood behind her again so I could pleat her hair. I divided her hair down the middle of her head. I twisted one half into a tight braid, then used one of the hair bands on my wrist to tie it. I braided the other half of her hair, then tied the other braid with the other hair band. "There… All done…" I said.

She looked up at me and smiled. "Thanks, Smurfette."

I smiled a little in return, then went to the head of my bed and upturned the covers. "You can sleep in my bed with me, if you want to." I offered.

She shook her head a little. "Actually, Smurfette… No 'fence 'er nothin', but I'd rather sleep with Snappy, Nat n' Slouchy…"She replied, looking at the floor embarrassedly.

I actually wasn't too surprised. I don't think they've ever really spent a night without each other. "Okay…" I said, "I'll walk you over to their room."

She slid off the stool and walked to the door. She waited for me to walk to the door before she skittered a little ways down the hallway and pounded on the door. "Are ya naked?" She called to the boys on the other side of the door, snickering a little.

"_NO_…" they all answered at once, annoyance and exasperation in their voices.

She opened the door and peeked her head inside. She let the door swing open and walked in. I saw the smurfling boys all tucked under the covers on the bed, Papa smurf sitting on the edge with them. "Err- Sassette. What're you doing in here?" Papa smurf asked, sounding honestly befuddled.

"I wanted t' sleep with th' other smurflin's…" she said. "Pleeeease, Pappy, cant I stay?"

"Well—" Papa smurf wrung his hands a little bit, trying to find the right words to say.

"Pleeeeease, Pappy smurf?" she pleaded with wide eyes.

Papa smurf caved. "Oh, all right…" he caved.

"Thanks, Pappy!" Sassette said, giving him a squeeze, then climbing up onto the bed, "Scooch over, Nat!"

The boys scooted over underneath the covers and made room for Sassette. She snuggled underneath the fluffy comforter and pulled it up to her nose. Papa smurf gave all four of them a kiss on the forehead, then left a small candle on a plate on the dresser as a nightlight. "Goodnight my little smurflings." Papa smurf said, gently closing the door behind him.

"G'night Papa smurf." Four tired smurflings chorused tiredly.

"See y' in the mornin' Pappy!" Sassette called back to him, yawning a great big yawn.

Papa smurf smiled and closed the door with a quiet click. "Goodnight, Smurfette." He smiled at me and walked down the hall.

"Goodnight, Papa smurf." I replied, yawning and walking to my room.

I went to bed soon after. But I was awakened by a loud screaming noise. I jolted awake, listening for more noise. It only took a moment or two before I started hearing more screaming, coming from the smurflings' bedroom across from mine. I jumped right out of bed and ran for the door. I went right in, only to see the smurflings shaking and trying to wake Sassette. She was lying on the bed, tears streaming down her cheeks, screams of terror rocking her whole body. Then, Slouchy got out of bed and ran, the fastest I've ever seen him, and found a cup to fill with water. Then he darted back, careful not to spill any water, and poured some of the water on her face. She drew a deep quick breath and sat up, nearly tagging snappy on the lip with her forehead. "_N-NAT_!" She stuttered, grabbing onto the first smurfling she saw and holding onto him for dear life, sobbing and wailing her eyes out.

I heard fast sets of footsteps from down the hall. Papa smurf and Farmer ducked into the room. "What happened?" Papa smurf demanded. "Do you have _any_ idea what time it is?"

"It sounded like y'all were screamin' _smurfy murder_ in here!" Farmer exclaimed.

Sassette sobbed and sniffled hysterically as Nat tried to comfort her. Slouchy awkwardly felt the glass in his hands. "Sassette was havin' a nightmare…" Snappy explained, "An' we couldn' wake her up…"

Papa smurf sat down on the bed next to Nat and Sassette and put his hand on her back. "Sassette… It was only a dream…" He said softly, "And it's over now... _It's all gone_…"

Sassette looked at him and eased out of Nat's embrace. She seemed to flinch at the sight of him and went right back to sobbing into Nat's nightshirt. That was when Farmer moved in, sitting closer to the crying child "Sassette… Is' alright, shugah…" he said softly. "It was just'a dream… _Dreams cain't hurt you_… An' even if they cou' they'd hafta smurf through_ me_ t' get'cha!"

Sassette sniffled and sniffed loudly, wiping her face with the back of her hand. Then she moved out of Nat's arms and into Farmer's, burying her face into his nightshirt and drawing jagged breaths. "_Shh… shh_… Is' okai, shugah…" he shushed the scared child. "Nothin's gon' hurt you when Ah'm here…Smurf m' heart, _don_' hope t' die."

She sniffed a little and spoke a little, "It's 'hope t' die', Farmer… Smurf my heart an' hope t' die…"

Farmer shook his head. "Naw, shug… You should _NEVA_ say 'hope t' die'… coz it can _always _happen…." He said, "Wha' was yo' dream about, shugah?"

Sassette tried to gather herself so she could talk. "S-s-s-slitherin s-s-s-sidewinders…I-i-it was _AWFUL_, Farmer…" she whimpered, "There was this big red river… b-but it wasn't water, it looked more like icky red p'sketti or somethin'... An- an- an- then I started coughin' again, a-an I was coughin' _blood,_ an' I tried to call for somesmurf… b-but _no'un would answer me_—" she started sobbing again, and Farmer rocked her back and forth soothingly, "b-b-b-bu' wait, there's _more!_! I—I tried looking for where the river was comin' from, an I came to this big red pool… an' when I tried t' look for somethin' t' use t' get across… an- an- an- an then this giant _clear-colored crab_—it-it-it came out from the pool, an' it started chasing me! I tried running away, or smurfin' for help, but…_But._.." She started bawling again.

Farmer held her to his chest, letting her tears drench his nightgown. "_I know… I know shugah…_ It's scary…" he said, his honey-like voice soothing the crying child, "Bu' Ah'll never let tha' scary crab get'cha… Smurf's honor…"

It took a lot of coaxing and convincing for her to finally fall back asleep. Papa smurf smoothed her hair out of her face and kissed her on her temple. "Goodnight, Sassette…" he whispered, "Sleep well, little one…"

We all went back to sleep, then woke up the next morning. Breakfast was mostly silent, minus the mindless prattling of the (very young) Princess Micha. Once breakfast was all done, the guards guided us to the hospital. The halls of the depressing building never seemed so long… _No_ halls ever felt so long… It felt like hours before we finally reached the oncology ward… Once we did, we all took our seats in the waiting room. The waiting was the _worst_… Snappy paced the area anxiously, fidgeting his hands. Nat sat with his knees to his chest, covering his face. Slouchy sat slumped over his knees, resting his eyes. Farmer sat in between Slouchy and Nat, rubbing both of their backs reassuringly. Sassette sat on Papa smurf's knee, anxiously waiting for some kind of news.

Unfortunately, we did get the news. The doctor from yesterday, Dr. Nava, entered the room with a dossier in her hands. "Hello, smurfs." She greeted us cordially. "I have your test results back…"

Snappy stopped pacing and sat down next to me. Slouchy and Nat looked up and studied her with hopeful eyes. Sassette looked up at Papa smurf with a scared expression. The doctor opened the file and showed us a picture of a pair of lungs. There was some kind of deformity in the left lung. _Is that what's making her so sick?_ "I'm afraid that we have identified the growth as limited stage lung cancer… I'm truly sorry…" she said, sounding sincere.

I watched as Papa smurf hugged a stunned Sassette close to his chest and rocked her back and forth, sounding as if he was crying. Tears were flooding my eyes, having heard such horrible news_. Cancer… My adopted sister has cancer…_

I saw a little flash of yellow, brown and red, then looked over to Sassette. Sassette had tears running down her cheeks, her face frozen in a mixture of shock and fear. The smurflings surrounded her, wrapping her in a hug. "D-d-don' cry, Sassette!" Snappy demanded, "_Y-y-you'll be ok_! You're gon' get better! You'll be okay! You'll be okay…" he cried a bit himself, burying his face in her shoulder.

Nothing seemed right in the world. It was as if the whole world had just been put in a state of perpetual sadness… Like some kind of an unsmurfy spell had been cast on us to make it so we couldn't smile again… Not a word was said for a short while. Not even from the doctor.


	5. Treatment

**Criminy, sorry this was such a slow update! ^^; been working (okay, procrastinating) on The Clumsy Project movie, and am trying to get the first quarter done before may 9th ^^;**

**Thank you to all my fabulous reviewers, I'm sorry I don't always respond ^^; But I really do read and appreciate your input and lovely comments :D**

**By the way... This was actually inspired by a song! Anyone who can tell me the song will get a drawing request on my DA :D **

**(people with FFaccounts only plz ^^;)**

**Hint#1- It starts with an "S"**

* * *

><p><strong>(Smurfette)<strong>

It had to have been a good five or ten minutes before anysmurf could speak. The news had just smurfed us like a pile of bricks… "How… How could this have happened…?" Papa smurf asked, mainly to himself, "How could something like this have happened…?"

The doctor adjusted her glasses. "You mentioned that your smurflings, Sassette specifically, were directly exposed to the smoke from unfamiliar alchemy chemicals?" She asked.

"Yes… but, what relevance does it have?" Papa asked.

Doctor Nava shifted in her seat and shuffled some papers around. "From what I've studied… Smurfs seem incredibly in tune with nature… such high exposure to artificial materials and toxins in such a way would likely affect most any of you smurfs similarly."

"What about me?" Papa smurf asked. "I work with chemicals and alchemy all day, every day. Yet I show no symptoms similar to Sassette."

Just the thought of Papa smurf sick like Sassette made my heart sink even lower. "Human's alchemy uses different chemicals than, say, smurf's alchemy, or fairy magic, or even Miraguan alchemy." She explained, "Your body is already used to the more natural ingredients than they are to the harsher chemicals in human's spells."

I looked at the smurflings. They seemed to be surgically attached to Sassette now, hugging her and crying, and talking softly to her. They seemed just as scared as she did. "There is good news with all this," the doctor said, "The cancer is only in the limited stage right now… Which means we caught it in time."

Papa smurf breathed a small sigh of relief. Farmer and I smiled slightly. _All hope's not lost. Sassette WILL be okay._ "This therapy we're going to try, Sassette," Dr. Nava continued, "It's the strongest there is. There's a sixty percent chance that when your cancer goes away, it'll never come back again."

Sassette could barely process what the doctor said. Her voice seemed to be stuck in her throat; the rest of her seemed to be folding in on herself. "Bu' wha' bout th' other _forty_ percent?" Snappy asked the question no one could.

Dr. Nava was very quiet for a moment. "Even with that forty percent chance, this is the strongest therapy we have approved." She rehashed, looking at Sassette, "We're going to take good care of you."

Sassette seemed too numb to speak. To do anything really. She shook herself free from everysmurf's grasp, slid off Papa smurf's knee, and quickly made her way to the door. The smurflings looked at each other and immediately went after her, following her out the door and down the hall. I tried to stand and follow them, but Farmer put his hand on my shoulder. "They need some time 'lone, shugah." He said plainly, "We'll catch up with 'em later."

I nodded a little and sat back down. "I think you will be happy to know that you don't have to stay here." Dr. Nava said, "It would actually be better for her if she was in a familiar environment when she's receiving treatment."

Papa smurf and Dr. Nava started talking about treatment options. I must have looked some kind of desolate, because Farmer put his hand on mine. "Pa' smurf…" Farmer said, his voice broken up, "We're gon' go find th' smurflin's… We'll see ya back at th' palace."

Papa smurf looked up at us and nodded slightly. I had never seen such a saddened look on anysmurf's face… every wrinkle on his face looked deeper than it ever did. His normally cheery, caring expression looked sad and uncertain. It felt like a knife to my heart seeing him so forlorn… Farmer took my hand and led me outside of the oncology ward. Once we were in the hallway, he stopped walking and pulled me into a caring hug. All the tears I had been trying to hold back rushed out as I hugged Farmer tightly. He gently stroked my back and _shh_-ed me. "It's okay, shugah… Jus' let it out…" he said, his low southern drawl making me feel a little better.

After a minute or two of just plain crying, I started to feel a little better. I sniffled a little and wiped my eyes. "There… Feelin' a lil' better?" he asked, smiling slightly.

I nodded a little, and rested my head on his shoulder. "I—I—I just _can't_ believe it… Poor Sassette..." I cried a little bit more.

Farmer patted my back a little bit. "It'll all smurf out, shugah." He said softly, "Th' docta' said there's treatment, at least. She'll get better."

"How do you know…?" I asked softly.

"Ah _don'_." He replied, "Ah _DO_ know Sassette's _not _one t' smurf down without'a fight."

I smiled a little. _He's right. Sassette's a fighter_. We started walking down the hall to go look for the smurflings. We found them sitting against the wall, a bit further down the hallway. Sassette sat with her knees to her chest, crying softly. Nat held one of her hands and tried to console her. Slouchy sat next to Sassette and whispered his sleepy comforting words in her ear. Snappy sat across from her, not quite sure what to do with himself. Farmer sat next to him. "Sassy…" Farmer said softly, "C'mere, shugah…"

Sassette uncurled herself, let go of Nat's hand and scooted across the hall into Farmer's arms. "F-Farmer…" She whimpered, "I'm scared…"

"Ah know…. Ah know shugah…" Farmer hushed her, "Ah'm scared too… We're _all _scared…"

Sassette wiped her eyes and snuggled in Farmer's protective embrace. "Bu' these doctors're gon' take good care'a you… they're gon' make you feel better…" he said, trying to comfort her.

The rest of the day seemed to pass like a blur. Papa smurf told us we were going home in the morning. That was the only real thing I actually retained from the day. Sassette and the smurflings didn't speak very much. In fact, Sassette went right back to the room and crawled into bed. She said she was too tired to play. The smurflings didn't want to play very much either. They looked so serious… So _scared_… No child ought to go through something like this…

The night was long. No, an understatement. It felt like the night would never end. I couldn't sleep. Even though the blankets on the large bed were soft and warm, and the mattress was just incredible, I couldn't get comfortable. I looked to the clock that sat on the nightstand. 5:46. I sighed and sat up. _No use trying to sleep now_… I slid out from under the covers and walked out to the balcony. The sun was already starting to peek up over the mountaintops. _In a few hours, we're going home… How on smurf are we going to break this news to the rest of the smurfs…?_ Not too long later I heard a knock on the door. I turned my head. There was a quiet click and the door slowly opened. Papa smurf had come in to wake me up for the day. "Ah, Smurfette… You're up early." He said, joining me on the balcony.

"I couldn't sleep…" I replied.

"I see." He said.

He leaned against the railing. Neither of us spoke for a while. "What'd the doctor say yesterday…?" I asked at last.

Papa smurf scratched the back of his head and thought for a moment. "Well," he said, "She told me how to give Sassette's treatment… Three times a week for six weeks."

"Is that all?" I asked.

That didn't sound too terrible. He shook his head. "No… after the first six weeks, there's no treatment for four weeks, and then another six weeks of medicines…Then another cycle after that…" he sighed a little. "How could I have let this happen…?"

"This isn't your fault, Papa smurf." I said, "Until yesterday nobody even knew what cancer was. There was no way you could've known."

Papa smurf buried his face in his hands. "I know, Smurfette." He said, "It feels so wrong to see her so scared… she's a _smurfling_, for smurf's sake!"

He shook his head as he leaned against the railing. "_It just isn't right_…"

Before I could respond, there was a light knock on the door. "Come in," I called, "The door's open."

There was a quiet click, and Nat appeared in the doorway. "Papa smurf? Th' guard jus' told us it's breakfast time…" he said.

"Alright, Nat… I'll be right out." He said.

Papa smurf excused himself from my room, and I got dressed for the day. I also packed the rest of my clothes and toiletries so we could leave sooner. I walked out the door, then down the hall to the breakfast hall. The smurflings sat and ate their breakfasts in silence. In fact, most everyone at the breakfast table was silent. With the exception of princess Micha's mindless prattling, breakfast passed without very much conversation.

Once breakfast was over, Papa smurf told us he had to return to the hospital. He didn't tell us why, but I think we all had a general idea. _The doctors hadn't given him Sassette's medicine yet_. Farmer, the smurflings and I went and got Feathers ready for the return home. Sassette was still uncharacteristically quiet. The boys hadn't left her side since the doctor had told us. They stuck around her, talking to her, trying to keep her mind off the whole ordeal. They were like some kind of a support group to the scared smurfling. Even given the situation, it was honestly very sweet to see.

Papa smurf had returned with the medicine by the time we were finished preparing Feathers. We climbed on her back, and she started flying homeward…

**(Slouchy) **

It was awhile before we got home. We didn't reach the village until it was almost sundown. When we finally touched ground in the village square, lots of the grown-ups were crowded around waiting for us. Once Feathers let us down on the ground, Sassette put her head down and pushed through the crowd. Snappy elbowed me and Nat. "We'd better follow her." He muttered.

I nodded and started following her. She ran past the bunkhouse, out to the forest. "Sassette!" Nat called to her, "We're not 'lowed outta th' village without a grown up!"

She didn't listen to him. Actually, I think she ran a bit _faster_. "Sasseettte!" I called, "Wait for uss!"

Sassette slowed down and started coughing a lot. Nat was the first to reach her. "_You hickory nut_…" he said, holding her up, "Wha'f Gargamel caught you again…?"

"Yeah," I said, "You member wha' happened las' time."

She started to stop coughing. "Gee smurf," Snappy said crabbily, "How come y' smurfed all the way out here, anyway?"

She didn't say anything, but motioned for us to follow her. "Hey, I know where we are," I said, "We're at our secret clubhouse!"

Sassette smiled for the first time in a couple days. "Mm- hmm!" she said, "C'mon, I wanna show you guys somethin' real smurfy!"

She climbed up the unfinished tree house, up to almost the top of the tree. "Hurry up, or you're gon' miss it!" she said.

We climbed up the tree's branches and sat with her. "Okay. Watch right over that way." She said, pointing over towards the sunset and the rest of the forest.

I watched out in that direction. _What're we looking for_? "What're we lookin' for, Sassette?" Snappy asked.

"You'll see! Just watch!" she shushed him.

In what seemed like a single movement, a thick cloud of multicolored birds exploded from the trees, turning the whole sky into a giant moving rainbow in only a few seconds. They swirled around each other, mixing the colors in the purple and red sky. Then, as quickly as they had all appeared, they separated by their color, and flew away to different parts of the forest. "Woooow!" Snappy marveled, looking awestruck by the odd phenomenon, "What was that? I've never seen so many different-colored birds all at once like that."

Nat piped up "I think it's their migration, or somethin'," he said, "It's almost winter, an' those birds fly at night."

Snappy crossed his arms and pouted a little, "Well, that's jus' weird! How come they fly at night?" he asked, "How'd they even know which way t'go?"

While Nat explained how some birds use the stars to figure out which way is south, I looked back at Sassette. She looked much happier, having seen the birds and stuff. I scooched next to her more. "Feel a lil' better now?" I asked plainly.

She smiled a bit as she looked over at me. "Picky piranhas, Slouchy! I _DO_ feel a lot better…" she said, "An' I'm real happy you guys got t' see this with me. Ain't it jus' th smurfiest?"

I looked back out towards the sunset. "Yeah," I said, "How long've y' known 'bout it?"

She shrugged, "'Bout a month," she said, "They all go off on some kinda trip 'bout every other week. I wanted t' make our clubhouse here so you guys could see it with me."

She smiled again and looked up at the purple sky. "Whallopin' watermelons, Slouchy… Wouldn' it be smurfy t'go on a trip like that?" she thought out loud, "all those other pretty colored birds with ya… Goin' to some neat new place… Smurfaroo, it'd be like some kind'a 'mazing dream…"

I nodded. "Yeah," I said, "That would be pretty smurfy."

"Hey! We should smurf it someday!" Snappy butted in, "Jus' th' four of us. _No _grown ups!"

Nat smiled real wide. "Yeah!" he said, "We gotta smurf it someday!"

Sassette turned more towards us on the branch and smiled the biggest smile I'd seen in a couple weeks. "We _DEFIANTLY _hafta!" she said. "Th' four of us_. Pinkie Promise_ on it, guys!"

The four of us linked pinkies. "Now. You guys gotta _promise_ that someday we're gonna take this trip. Got it?" Sassette said, all seriousness in her face.

We nodded, sharing her same solemnity. "_We promise_."

Then Sassette started coughing again.

**(Smurfette)**

After Sassette and the smurflings ran off, it started to get dark. I waited and watched for them in Handy's workshop, where he was making a new invention for Sassette. "Handy," I said, "Shouldn't we go find them? It'll be dark soon…"

Handy looked up from his invention and shook his head. "It's alright, Smurfette. They have Nat with 'em. If they do get lost, Nat'll send one of his animal friends." He replied with a reassuring smile.

I sighed a little. "I suppose you're right…" I said, walking away from the window, over to his workbench, "What're you working on, anyways?"

He moved aside a bit to make room for me. "It's an air smurfifier," he said, "It'll purify the air in the smurflings' bunkhouse, maybe keep Sassette from getting any sicker…"

He hung his head a little bit, staring at the unfinished invention on his desk. His grip involuntarily tightened on the screwdriver in his hand. "I… I _still _can't believe all this's happening…" he said, blankly. "Poor Sassette…"

I nodded in agreement. "I know…" I said, "It' had us all smurfing on eggshells ever since we found out."

Handy blinked a couple times and went back to smurfing the air smurfifier. "I suppose it could always be _worse_," he said, dryly, "At least we found out 'bout it before it could get any worse."

"Mmhmm…" I said, "The doctors said it can be treated, and they have her on their strongest medicines. And at least she's home, surrounded by smurfs that care about her, instead of some unsmurfy hospital room."

Handy smiled a little, still focusing his attention to his invention. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a small commotion not far away from the workshop, in the direction of the forest. "_Papa smurrrf_!" the scratchy voice of Nat called loudly, his voice laced with desperation. "_Papa smurrrrf_!"

I immediately feared the worst. I went outside, only to find Sassette coughing into her fist, Nat and Slouchy supporting her weight. Handy immediately dropped his tools on the bench and ran outside to help them. "C'mon, Sassette," he said, picking her up and holding her over his shoulder, "Let's get you t' Papa smurf!"

He ran through the village, the smurflings hot on his trail. I followed them as fast as my high- heeled shoes would let me. It wasn't long before they all reached Papa smurf's lab. Handy went right through the door without knocking. "Papa smurf! Papa smurf!" He called, making Papa smurf drop a potion to the floor in surprise, "Sassette's having another episode!"

Papa smurf immediately smurfed into action. He added a few ingredients to an already- mixed potion, then attached a spray nozzle to the beaker. Handy had placed Sassette on the bed in the corner of the lab, holding one of her hands and speaking gently. He moved aside for Papa smurf. Papa smurf sprayed the potion in her mouth, and after a moment or two, her powerful coughing faded away. She barely got in a word before Papa smurf shushed her, and she fell asleep. I watched as Nat uncurled her tight fist, then suddenly recoiled in shock. "P-P-Papa smurf!" he practically squeaked, "_Th-th-there's blood on 'er hand_!"

Papa smurf looked pained for a moment, then used a handkerchief to clean Sassette's hand. "It's the cancer, Nat," he said, his voice strained, "she may be coughing blood for a while, until it goes away."

Nat looked away, his face nearly white and tears in his eyes. "Smurfaroo…" Slouchy said, sleepy-sadness outlining his tone. "How long'll it take, b'fore it's gone, Papa smurf?"

Papa smurf sighed a little bit and wiped little flecks of red from Sassette's lips. "I don't know for sure, Slouchy." He confessed, "It may be a _long _time before it's gone for good."

The smurfling boys shifted uncomfortably. Somewhere in the village, Greedy rang his dinner bell. The boys didn't even flinch. "Go and eat your suppers, my little smurfs," Papa smurf said, taking a seat next to Sassette, "I will stay with Sassette."

The boys reluctantly went out the door and ran to Greedy's mess hall. I cast a glance at Papa smurf and Sassette, then followed them. They finished their dinners practically at smurfspeed, then immediately left for Papa smurf's lab. I wish I had their appetite. I didn't feel hungry for most of my dinner. But of course, I didn't want to offend Greedy, so I did try and clean my plate.

After supper, I brought my dishes to Greedy and hurried to finish the day's chores. It was close to bedtime before I had finished my chores, but I had to check on Sassette before I went to bed. I walked to Papa smurf's lab, then knocked on the door quietly. "Come in," Papa smurf called softly.

I opened the door as quietly as I could. I let myself in and gently shut the door behind me. I looked over at Sassette on the bed. She was still asleep, snoring softly. Not surprisingly, the smurflings had joined her on the bed, Nat leaning against her, Slouchy curled up by her other side, and Snappy leaning on the bed frame by the foot of the bed. "They refused to leave," Papa smurf explained, rubbing his tired eyes.

I nodded in understanding, quietly moving towards them. I smoothed Sassette's hair back behind her ear, and watched her face twitch in dreamy slumber. _She looks so peaceful… Could she really be so sick? _"You should rest, Papa smurf," I said, looking back at him, "you look awfully tired…"

Papa smurf smiled a little and nodded. "I _will,_ Smurfette," he said, "But first I have to finish preparing Sassette's treatment for tomorrow."

I felt a lump in my throat. I swallowed that lump, then walked over to him, and gave him a hug. "Okay… Goodnight Papa smurf…" I said softly.

"Goodnight, Smurfette." Papa smurf replied, patting me on the back, "Pleasant dreams."

**(Slouchy) **

When I woke up, we were all still in Papa smurf's lab. Nat and Snappy were still sleeping, but Sassette was awake. She was still under the covers though, cause Nat fell asleep leaning on her, and she probably didn't want to wake him up. "G'mornin' Sassette," I yawned, stretching and sitting up. "How're you feelin'?"

She smiled a little bit. "I feel jus' fine now, Slouchy." She whispered. "Bu' if these two don' wake up we're _never_ gon' get outside!"

I watched as she shook Nat a little. "Wake up!" she said, "It's morning, wake up!"

Nat muttered a little and rolled over so he faced away. She nudged Snappy with her foot under the covers, "Snappyyy!" she almost wined, "get _uppp_!"

Snappy pouted in his sleep and swatted her foot away. There was a loud creaking noise, and it made all four of us jump. It actually woke Snappy and Nat up! The creaking noises got louder and louder, then I realized what they were. Papa smurf coming down the stairs. He walked from the steps to the bed, "Good morning, my little smurflings," he said tiredly.

"G'mornin' Pappy!" Sassette practically sang.

"How did you all sleep?" He asked.

"We slept great, Papa smurf!" Nat stretched, distractedly watching a butterfly out the window.

"I had the smurfiest dreams las' night, Pappy," Sassette chimed in, smiling and looking up at the ceiling. "So many frogs _everywhere_!"

Papa smurf smiled a little, seeing her so happy. But he didn't smile for very long. Soon his face was more somber and serious. "Sassette…" he said, "_It's time to start treatment…"_

Sassette instinctively smurfed her knees to her chest and hugged her legs. Her face looked nervous, uneasy. I patted her knee. "It'll be okay, Sassette." I said, "R'member_? I promised_."

She smiled a little bit, but kept hugging her knees. Papa smurf went through his medical bag, a very serious look on his face. Once he had all the medicine and stuff for Sassette's treatment, he walked over to us and sat next to the bed. He had a small needle attached to a small, clear tube with little notches in it. Sassette turned her head towards me and shut her eyes. "O—Okay, Pappy…" she said, trying to keep her voice even, "I'm ready…"

Papa smurf took a deep breath and swabbed a small spot on her chest with a cotton ball. As gently and seemingly painlessly as he could, he wiggled the needle under her skin, then taped it in place. "How come it's all th' way up there?" Nat asked, now sitting next to Snappy.

"Because this needle has to stay put for awhile, Nat," Papa smurf explained, sadness in his tired face, "Where it is, it's less likely to smurf out."

Sassette squirmed a little from nervousness. Her hand subconsciously found mine, and she squeezed it out of nerves. I watched as Papa smurf got medicine into a shot from a brownish- yellow bottle, then unscrew the needle from the rest of the shot and leave it in the bottle. He screwed the shot in one of the little notches in the tube, then slowly pushed down on the plunger-thing. "This's the first one…" Papa smurf said softly, "only three more to go."

Sassette bravely sat up a little bit. Papa smurf did the same thing as before, but with a dark green colored bottle. After he'd given her that medicine, Sassette rubbed her tummy a little. "Eww… Gobblin' groupers, my tummy feels kinda icky, Pappy…" she said.

"That's just a side effect of the medicines, my little smurf," Papa smurf said, distractedly getting more medicine from a dark purple colored bottle, "your tummy might feel unsmurfy for a while before it gets used to the medicines."

After he'd given her that medicine, Sassette made a sour face and held her tummy more. "Almost done, my little smurfling," Papa smurf assured her, getting medicine from the last dark blue bottle. "Just one more, and it's all done for today."

He gave her the last medicine, then patted her on the forehead. "There we go, my little smurfling… All done…" he said softly, "You were very brave, Sassette."

Sassette puffed out her chest a little in pride, but was soon coughing into her fist. Nat and Snappy moved up by me and patted her back. I looked at Snappy. For once, he actually looked serious, the scowl on his face giving him an almost protective look. I looked at Nat. He looked guilty and heavy-hearted, cringing at every one of Sassette's little coughs. Sassette's coughing finally started to go away, and she snuggled back in the covers a little bit. From somewhere else in the village, we all heard Greedy ringing the breakfast bell. Sassette didn't even bother trying to get up. "Sassette, perhaps it would be best if you rested here for a while, until your stomach feels better…" Papa smurf said, smoothing her hair.

Sassette nodded a little and snuggled deeper in the blankets. "You guys go'n get breakfast," she said, "I'll jus' wait here."

Snappy pouted in protest, but eventually conceded defeat. Him and Nat started walking out the door. I waved goodbye to Sassette and started following them. "We'll smurf you guys some breakfast later." I said, closing the door behind me.

We didn't talk too much walking to the mess hall. Nat and Snappy didn't even have anything to "discuss" today. Breakfast was pretty quiet too. _Come to think of it, Sassette's almost always the one who starts games. _I thought, stabbing scrambled egg with my fork, _A lot of our conversations, too. No wonder it's so quiet._

After breakfast, Greedy gave us some crackers and stuff for Sassette's tummy, and breakfast for Papa smurf. "I'll make some'a my famous vegetable barley soup for lunch," he told us, "Nothing's better for an upset tummy than Greedy smurf's barley soup!"

We brought the food to Papa smurf's lab, where Sassette was sleeping again. Snappy, Nat and I decided to sit and wait for her to wake up. Then we could all go play. _Right_?


	6. First Snow, Final Goodbyes?

**Hewoo! SF here :D And because I am again procrastinating drawing the rest of Act 1 for The Clumsy Project movie, I cranked out another chapter :D **

**And because I gave y'all a terrible hint last time as to what song inspired me to make this, (XD) I'll give you two hints:**

**Hint#1- The song name starts with an "S"**

**Hint#2- It was made in 2005.**

**Hint#3- One word title.**

**Happy guessing! :D And go grab a box of tissues, this one's a tear-jerker T^T**

* * *

><p><strong>(Slouchy)<strong>

A couple weeks passed since we found out about the cancer. Snappy, Nat and me tried to be at every one of Sassette's treatments. The medicine made her tummy real upset, and she was pretty much always too tired to play after. After the first two weeks or so, her skin started looking paler. Her hair was loosing some of its shine. Her cough sounded worse. It felt so hard to believe… Like all this was some terrible dream we'd all wake up from, and everything would be normal and smurfy again… But one morning, about two weeks after Sassette first started taking the medicines, we woke up from that dream, and landed in the beginnings of an even worse dream…

Sassette had woken up in the night, coughing more. I rolled over and looked up at her from my bunk. She was sitting up facing the wall, huddled in her blankets. I flipped up the covers and climbed up the ladder. "Sassette?" I whispered. "You okay?"

She turned around and looked at me. Her eyes looked dark and deep in her face. Her skin was pale and sick- looking. Her freckles looked real dark compared to her skin. "Slouchy…?" she whispered, her voice sounding scratchy, "I woke you up again, didn't I?"

I shook my head and fixed my hat. "Nah… It's okay, Sassette." I yawned, sitting next to her and swinging my legs over the side, "Sorry y'don' feel good again…"

She coughed more, then swung her legs over the edge of the bed and sat next to me. She shivered a little bit, then wiped her forehead and huddled in her blankets. "Need me t' go get Papa smurf?" I asked.

She shook her head, then coughed again. She sighed a little and put her head on my shoulder. "Slouchy…?" she rasped.

"Yeah?" I replied, hoping my cheeks weren't red.

"Whaddyou think it's like?" she asked, "y'know, Heaven?"

I felt pretty shocked by her question. I couldn't even find an answer for her. "I… I dunno, Sassette," I said finally, "Papa smurf says it's sposed t' be _real _pretty… Lotsa flowers, an' pretty rocks, an stuff… th' best music in th' whole world… even better than _all _th' hundred smurf's orchestra… an' it's always warm…"

I looked more at her. "I guess I think it's like that…" I said, "Whadd_you_ think?"

She coughed more and shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno… I think maybe it's like what you said… but with more frogs."

She started coughing harder. I patted her on the back to try and ease her coughing. Once she'd finally stopped coughing, she wiped her hand on the blanked, then buried her face in my shoulder, whimpering a little bit. My cheeks felt real warm, and I felt this weird feeling in my tummy. Something in my chest felt like it hurt, I guess cause I felt so bad for Sassette. I looked at her blanket, and saw a red smear. "_No matter how many times it happens…_" she said, "_I always feel so scared_…"

I put my hand on her shoulder and rubbed it a little. "It's okay, Sassette…" I whispered, trying to make her feel better, "you're not the only one who's scared…we're _all _scared…"

She coughed more, harder and with much more power behind it. She shivered a little, then wiped her forehead. Her cheeks looked kinda flush, so I put my hand on her forehead. "You feel kinda warm…" I said, "C'mon, I'll take you to Papa smurf."

Sassette shook her head. "No… I do'wanna…" she said, "I do'wanna wake'm up…"

I nudged her and tried to get her to come down the ladder. "I think he'll understand," I said, "C'mon."

She coughed a little bit and conceded defeat. She followed me down the ladder and then got a jacket from her dresser. I helped her pull it on as she coughed again, then put mine on. I heard a shuffling in the bed underneath Sassette's bunk. Snappy muttered and sat up. "Wha…" he yawned, "Wha're you guys doin'?"

"I'm takin' Sassette t' Papa smurf." I said, "Go back t'sleep, Snappy."

He muttered, then rolled over and drifted back to sleep. Sassette and I walked through the village, the light of the full moon covered in a shroud of clouds. I had no idea it was so cold out… Then again… we had just finished the harvest. And it was getting close to Christmas…

We reached Papa smurf's lab. Sassette coughed and pulled her jacket around her as I reached up and knocked on the door. It was a few minutes before Papa smurf finally came to the door. "Slouchy, Sassette." He said, rubbing his eyes tiredly, "It's nearly four o'clock in the morning, what on smurf are you doing up?"

"Sorry Pappy," Sassette apologized, then coughed in her fist.

"She woke up an' couldn' fall back asleep." I said, patting on her back.

Papa smurf cringed a little and let us in. He put his candle on the table next to his potions. "I'm sorry, my little smurfling," he said, distractedly, "I'm afraid I can't give you a potion to help you sleep. It might conflict with your medicines."

Sassette pouted a little and coughed. She sat down and pulled her jacket around her. Papa smurf went to a little kitchenette area in the corner of his lab, and put a kettle on the stove. "I _do_ have a home remedy Grandpa used to give me when _I_ was just a smurfling."

He mixed a hot drink for her, then sat across from us. Sassette drank the hot liquid in slow sips, getting more tired as time went by. Once she was all done, she gave her cup back to Papa smurf and yawned. "Tired"-_yawn_-"turtles, Pappy…" she muttered a little. "I'm real sleepy now…"

Papa smurf yawned too. "Good, Sassette… Now, it's about time you two went back to bed." He said, checking the clock in the corner.

Sassette pulled her coat around her and nodded lazily. We shuffled to the door. "G'night, Papa smurf." I said, watching him walk back up the stairs.

"Good night, Slouchy," he replied, rubbing his tired eyes, "Now go on and get some sleep."

I closed the door behind me as quietly as I could. Sassette and I walked slowly back to the bunkhouse. "Thanks for doin' this for me, Slouchy," Sassette said, sorta out of the blue, "You're a true friend."

I shrugged a little. "It's nothin' Sassette." I replied, "you'd smurf th' same for _me_."

"Yeah, bu' still…" she said.

She stopped walking, and gave me a hug. "Thanks for _everythin_', Slouchy…" she said softly, "This whole thin's been so _scary_…. An' you, an' Nat, an' Snappy… You guys've been so _smurfy_…"

I felt my cheeks get warm. I hugged her back a little and patted her on the back. "You're welcome, I guess." I said, "I'd'a thought lookin' after ya'd be jus' somethin' friends do… Didn' think it was that big'a deal…"

I felt something cold and wet on the back of my neck. I looked up, only to get another one of those somethings in my eye. "It's… It's snowing…" I muttered a little bit.

Sassette looked up, then broke away from our hug. She smiled widely, then clapped her hands together and closed her eyes. "Wha're you doin'?" I asked.

"I'm makin' a wish, silly!" she said, her voice sounding more like a whisper. "If you get caught in th' first snow've winter, you're sposed t' make a wish."

I'd never heard that anywhere before. "Where on smurf didja hear that?" I asked, confused.

"Nowhere, but _c'mon_!" she said, "First snow've the year's gotta have _some _kinda magic to it, right?"

I couldn't fight that logic. I put my hands together and silently sent a wish to the heavens. _I wish Sassette would feel better_… "_Brr_… Shiverin' salamanders… It's cold out here." Sassette said, warming her hands and yawning.

"C'mon… we'd better go back to bed." I said, nudging her a little bit. "It's late…"

She nodded a little and coughed. We went back to the bunkhouse and went back to sleep in our bunks. When I woke up the next morning, Snappy and Nat were both awake. But Sassette was still in bed, the blankets pulled up over her head. Snappy and Nat were both dressed and poking her through the blankets. "Sasseeete…" Snappy whined a little, "C'mon, we're gon' be late for breakfast, wake up!"

The blanketed lump rolled a little, and pulled the blanket tighter. "No…" it said, plainly and sadly. "I-I'm _not _coming out…"

Something wasn't right. Nat and Snappy must've heard it too, cause they climbed up the ladder and sat next to the lump. "C'mon, Sassette." Nat said, poking and prodding her a bit. "Y'can't jus' stay in there forever, y'know."

"Yes I can…" Sassette said, sadly, "Jus' watch me."

I got out of bed and joined them up on Sassette's bed. Snappy huffed a little and tore the blanket off her head. "C'mon, Sassette!" he said impatiently, "You're not gon' stay here all d-"

He froze when he saw Sassette sit up and glare at him, her face stained with tears. I looked at her pillow. There was a weird clump of—_something _on top of it. It was kind of an orangeish red, and it almost looked like… _No… Could it really be_….? "I'm gon' go get Papa smurf." I said, jumping down from the bed and pulling on a pair of pants under my nightshirt.

I rushed to Papa smurf's lab, not stopping to talk to anyone. Once I got there, I knocked on the door. As if he could tell it was urgent, he came to the door quickly. "Slouchy! What's wrong?" he asked.

"I dunno," I said, "bu' I think there's somethin' _real _wrong with Sassette…"

He closed the door behind him, and followed me back to the bunkhouse. Snappy and Nat seemed to have been banished from her bunk, and she had pulled the blankets back up over her head. "She won' come out…" Nat said, looking up at her with a serious face.

Papa smurf climbed the ladder and sat on the bed next to Sassette. He patted the blanket. "Go 'way, Snappy!" Sassette almost yelled.

"Sassette, it's me. It's Papa smurf." Papa smurf said, prying the blanket from up over her head.

Sassette sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She wiped her eyes and hugged Papa smurf. "P-P-Pappy…" She sniffled, "I'm scared… I'm _real_ scared…J-just _look_it…"

She grabbed the red clump on her pillow and showed it to Papa smurf, sniffing and sniveling. Papa smurf froze and stared at it for a moment. Almost immediately, he started blinking a lot, like he was trying to blink away tears or something. He put the clump back on her pillow and turned her away from it, rocking her and stroking her hair. Tears were bubbling from his eyes, and he shuddered with every breath. Snappy, Nat and I looked at each other, worry in our faces. "Papa smurf," Snappy said, "Wha's wrong?"

Papa smurf tried to pull himself together and look at us, tears still running down his face and disappearing in his white beard. "One… One of the side effects of Sassette's medicines…" Papa smurf paused, "_One of the side effects of the medicines is hair loss…_"

Snappy and I shared a confused look. "Wha're you sayin' Papa smurf?" Nat asked.

Papa smurf thought for a moment, and then looked directly at us. "I'm saying," he said, pain in his face, "Sassette may loose her hair… _Much_ more than just a few little clumps…"

Something didn't exactly click with me… "Bu' why're you so sad, Sassette?" Snappy shrugged, "None of _us_ have hair, an' we don' feel sad."

_He's right. The only smurfs with hair're Papa smurf an' Grandpa_. I thought to myself, _and they don't really count, cause they have beards, not hair like Smurfette or Sassette, or Nanny_. Snappy's observation only seemed to make her sadder. She started crying real hard, and hugging Papa smurf real tight. Papa smurf held her tight, rocking back and forth a little, stroking her hair soothingly. "_Shh… Shh_… It's alright, my little smurfling…" He whispered to her, "how about you help Greedy and I make decorations for the Christmas party? We'll need lots of smurfy decorations."

Sassette shook her head. "N-no… I do'wanna, Pappy…" she sniffled.

Papa smurf gave her a little squeeze. "Sassette… I know you're feeling sad right now…" he said, "but you can't spend all day in bed… Besides, Greedy and I need your help. Nosmurf smurfs decorations quite like you do."

She smiled a little, feeling a little better having been complimented like that. She gave a little sigh and wriggled out of Papa smurf's arms, and shimmied down the ladder. I watched as she pulled on a coat and waited for Papa smurf by the door. "Go on ahead, Sassette, I'll meet you at Greedy's kitchen." He told her, slowly getting down from the bed.

Sassette shrugged a little and ducked out the door. Papa smurf stood in front of Nat, Snappy and I. "Sit, boys." He said, plainly, "I believe it's time we had a little smurf-to-smurf-to-smurf-to-smurf talk."

Snappy crossed his arms and looked away looking real guilty. "You're not in trouble, Snappy." Papa smurf said, patting him on the shoulder. "I just want to talk."

Us three smurflings sat down on my bed. Papa smurf stood on the ladder and picked the clump of hair off Sassette's pillow. He held it in his hands a minute or two, worry in his face, then dropped it in the wastebasket. Then he sat down on Snappy's bunk across from us. "First, I'd like you three to know, you are very, _very_ brave for being able to smurf through something like this with Sassette," Papa smurf said, smiling proudly at us. "You're being very grown-up with all this… this… unsmurfiness, and I'm _very_ proud of you three."

"Thanks, Papa smurf." We replied in unison.

"But," he continued, "I _do _think we need to talk through a few things…"

I pulled my legs up on the bed and sat criss-cross-applesauce. "Like wha', Papa smurf?" I asked.

"Well," he said, his smile fading, "For one thing, one of the reasons Sassette's so sad about…" he paused, trying to find the right words. "…_Today_…"

Snappy shrugged a little bit. "I jus' don' get it, Papa smurf." He said, "_None'_a th' smurfs have hair. No'un 'cept you an' Grandpa, an' Smurfette an' Nanny. Other than that all us're bald."

"Yeah," I said, "wha's so bad about loosing her hair?"

Papa smurf sat and thought a moment, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Snappy… What makes me Papa smurf?" he asked at last.

Snappy tilted his head. "Whaddyou mean?"

"Just what I said," Papa smurf asked, "_What makes me Papa smurf_? How do you recognize me from all the other hundred and two smurfs in the village?"

Snappy covered his mouth with his hand and thought for a moment. "Well," he said, "Your clothes are red, not white… an' you're older… an' your beard, I guess too."

"Right," Papa smurf replied, "And how can you tell who in the village's Hefty?"

"Aw, that's easy!" Nat jumped in, pointing at his arm "his heart tattoos!"

"Yes, yes," Papa smurf said, "Now what about Tracker?"

"Red feather in'is hat."

"Harmony?"

"His horn!"

"What about Vanity?"

"His mirror, an' th' flower in'is hat."

"Or maybe Brainy?"

"His glasses!"

"My point smurfing," Papa said, "_Every _smurf has something about them that identifies them, something that is _uniquely_ their own. _And one of those things that makes Sassette Sassette, is her red hair._"

Snappy crossed his arms and looked away. "Snappy, how would you feel if I said you could never_, ever_ wear your yellow shirt again, you had to wear your white trousers and white hat like every other smurf?"

Snappy was quiet. "Or Nat, what if I said you weren't allowed to talk to your animal friends? Or wear your overalls again? Or your hat?"

Nat held his hat in his hands, picking at a loose straw. "Slouchy, would you feel smurfy if I said you couldn't wear your red shirt, or wear your hat like that?"

"No… I guess I wouldn't…" I replied, playing with my fingers in my lap.

"One of the reasons Sassette feels so sad, and scared, about loosing her hair is because _it feels like she's being robbed of her identity_." Papa smurf explained, "It is something that is uniquely her own and she's scared to have it taken away so suddenly, so… Without any real warning."

_So that's why_… I thought, looking down at the floor_. I feel so bad for what we said earlier… _"Do you understand what I'm saying here, boys?" Papa smurf asked.

"I think so, Papa smurf." Snappy said, looking ashamed.

"Good," Papa smurf stood from his spot on the bed, then sat on my bed with us. "Sassette is smurfing through one of the hardest times in her life right now, my little smurflings."

"Yeah… we know…" I said, still looking at the floor.

"But you three are making it a little easier on her," he said, smiling, putting a reassuring arm around us. "You three are what's keeping her happy and making her feel a little less scared. And I'm _very_ proud of you for it."

I smiled a little. "Gosh, Papa smurf," Nat said, "I thou' doin' tha' was jus' part'a bein' a good friend. I didn' think it was tha' big'a deal t' jus' be there."

Papa smurf chuckled a little and squeezed us. "_Much bigger than you know, Nat_. Your being there is the best thing you can smurf for Sassette right now. She needs you, and your friendship to keep her spirits up." He said, looking at all three of us.

We hugged him back. "Bu' Papa smurf," Snappy said, "How're we gon' help'er with how she's loosin' her hair? We don' know what it feels like. How're we 'sposed t' help her?"

Papa smurf looked right at Snappy and thought for a moment. "I think the best thing you can do for Sassette is be a shoulder to cry on," he said, "There's a distinct possibility she may loose _all _her hair. She'll need your love and support now more than ever."

We were all very quiet for a moment. "Papa smurf?" Nat said, "Will her hair ever grow back?"

Papa smurf nodded, "Yes, Nat, it will. But not for a long time." He said, "And when it does, it might be different than how it was before she started the chemotherapy."

Papa smurf stood up and started to leave. "You smurflings had best get some breakfast. It's been a long morning already." He said, "Then you should go outside and enjoy the first snow of winter."

"Okay, Papa smurf" we all muttered.

**(Smurfette)**

A few days had passed since Sassette had started loosing her hair. She had been refusing to come out, playing with all her toys inside the bunkhouse instead of outside in the sun. I honestly can't say I blamed her. But today she couldn't just stay inside. She had to go to Papa smurf's lab for her medicines. Papa smurf sent Brainy and I to go get her.

Brainy knocked on the door. "Sassette! Oh Sasseeeette!" he called into the house.

Snappy was the one who answered the door. His face was fixed in a scowl, as always and he leaned on the door frame. "Sassette's sleepin' Brainy. Whaddyou want?" he said.

"Papa smurf wants Sassette so he can give her her medicine, Snappy," I said. "May we come in?"

"Y'can, but I doubt she's gon' come out." Slouchy's voice answered from inside the house.

He let us in, then went back to playing with a little wooden horse and knight. Slouchy was sitting on his bed, thumbing through a picture book. Nat was laying on his bunk above Slouchy his legs hanging over the edge and a butterfly perched on the rim of his hat. Sassette was huddled in her bed under the covers. Brainy strode over to her and adjusted his glasses. "Sassette, Sassette, Sassette!" he wagged his finger, shaking the little smurf. "Don't you know too much sleep is just as unsmurfy as not enough sleep? And like Papa smurf allllways says-"

"Aw, smurf up, Brainy." Snappy said, climbing up the ladder and pushing his hand away.

Snappy shook the little blanketed lump gently. "Sassette… Y'gotta get up so you can take your medicine..." he said.

The little lump in the bed moved and yawned loudly. "Sleepy squirrels, Snappy… Can't I jus' sleep a lil' more…?" she said.

"Sassette, Sassette, Sassette," Brainy started, wagging his finger again, "You cant just sleep the whole day away, because-"

He stopped once Sassette sat up and glared at him. Her skin was pale, sallow. Her eyes looked sullen and sunken in her face. Her hair looked more like a thin, sickly red veil instead of the once thick, lovely auburn waves I had come to know. She coughed and swung her legs over the edge of the bunk. "Can't Pappy smurf jus' come here for those yucky medicines?" she asked. "I do'wan' anysmurf t' see me like this…" she sniffled a little and ducked her head, "They're… they're gon' look at me funny…"

Slouchy and Nat looked up from what they were doing and climbed up on the bunk with her. "It's ok, Sassette." Nat said, "We'll make sure nosmurf hurts your feelin's, Ok?"

Sassette pouted a little and looked away. "Nat… My tummy hurts…." She said, making a sour face. "I really do'wanna go t'day…"

"We know, Sassette." Slouchy said, patting her on the back. "But'cha gotta take your medicine, or else y' won' get better."

Sassette kept looking down, then climbed down from the bed. The smurflings pulled on their coats, then closed the door behind them as they left. The walk from the bunkhouse was long, so much longer than it ever was. I saw what Sassette meant by funny looks… As we walked through the village, some of the smurfs stopped their snow- shoveling and watched her pass. A couple of them muttered amongst themselves, giving her looks of pity and bewilderment. Sassette ducked her head, and moved closer to Snappy and Slouchy. Her pace quickened as she moved through the uncomfortable scene.

The smurfling boys surrounded her, making almost a shield around her. Sassette still looked sad and ashamed, but it looked like it was lightened by the boys' presence. Slouchy had a knowing, sleepy-sad look on his face as he walked to the right of her. Nat seemed to study the ground, his eyes dark with uncertainty. And Snappy led the way, his ever-present scowl giving him a protective, almost challenging feel.

As we approached Papa smurf's lab, Jokey came out from wherever he'd been hiding out carrying his yellow and red surprise box. But before he could speak, or laugh, or anything, all three of the smurfling boys inched closer to Sassette, glaring at Jokey. They silently dared him to say or do something with their protective body language. Sassette simply ducked her head and avoided eye contact. "Now's _not_ a good time for one of your pranks, Jokey." Brainy said, all seriousness in his face, and for once no condescension in his tone.

Seeing Brainy and the smurflings so serious must've clicked with Jokey, because he slowly backed off. "I think that's the first time I've ever seen Jokey smurf away from giving out one of his surprise boxes…" I half-whispered to Brainy.

Brainy smiled a little smugly. "Well of course that's the first time! I've never said anything to him about it, or else he probably would've stopped sooner." He said, his arrogance returning to his voice.

I rolled my eyes and knocked on Papa smurf's door. "Come in, my little smurfs." he replied.

Brainy opened the door and held it open for the smurflings and I. I smiled a little thanks and sat on a nearby stool. Sassette sat on the bed in the corner, the smurflings on either side of her. Brainy joined Papa smurf by his books and potions. Papa smurf got Sassette's medicines from his medical bag, then sat next to Sassette on the bed. He screwed a barrel of a syringe into a needle stuck in an amber-colored bottle, then tilted it upsidown in his hands and pulled the plunger. The yellowish liquid filled the syringe, and Papa smurf unscrewed the barrel from the needle and put the bottle back in his bag. Sassette looked away, picking at a loose thread in her pink overalls. I watched as Papa smurf moved a tube with lots of notches on the ends from the inside of her overalls. He screwed the syringe barrel into one of the notches of the tube and squeezed the plunger, injecting the medicine through the tube, through the sick little smurfling's veins. Sassette coughed, and held her tummy. She looked almost green in the face. She brought her knees to her chest and groaned a little bit. I was about to join her on the bed to try and comfort her, but the smurflings beat me to the punch. Snappy sat almost behind her, holding out a bucket he picked up from the floor. Nat sat to her left, almost in between her and Papa smurf. Slouchy took her hand reassuringly. "Bet'cha million smurfberries you're gon' get sick." He said dryly.

Nat gave him a sour look. Sassette suddenly snatched the bucket from Snappy's hands and emptied her stomach. He rubbed her on the back. "Now y'gotta pay us back… which means y'_gotta_ get better." Snappy added.

My heart sank a little in my chest. Poor Sassette was going through so much… And where was I? I couldn't even comfort her, the smurflings had already cut in. Papa smurf gave her the rest of her medicines, and put away the bottles and medical equipment. Sassette stayed curled up on the bed, holding her tummy. The smurflings stuck around her, comforting her and trying to talk to her to keep her mind off her upset stomach. There was a knock on the door. "Come in." Papa smurf called.

Farmer opened the door and walked through. "Pa' smurf, Ah need a few extra hands in th' Iceberry fields, but every'un's still busy with gettin' ready for th' Christmas party next week…" he said, then paused when he saw Sassette in the bed. "Ah… Dad gum, shugah…"

He sat next to her and ran his hand over her forehead. "I don' feel good, Farmer…" she said, closing her eyes and huddling close to him. "My tummy feels _really_ icky…"

"Ah know, shugah… It'll be okay…" He half-whispered back, putting the remainder of her hair back behind her ear.

The smurflings sat around them, whispering amongst themselves. I wanted to do something, _ANY_thing. I walked to the bed and sat on the edge of the bed closer to Sassette's face. "Sassette…?" I said weakly.

She looked up at me and coughed. "I know I haven't really been around as much as I should be," I said, feeling my voice catch in my throat, "B-but I want you to _know I'm here for you now. _And I'm sorry I haven't been here more."

She smiled a little bit and took my hand. "It's… It's okay, Smurfette…" she said. "I understand."

I smiled a little and ran my finger over her cheek a little. "It'll be over soon, Sassette," I said, wishing I knew what to say, "You're so _brave_ for being able to go through this..."

"Worried whippoorwills… Thanks Smurfette." She said coughing into her fist. "Bu' I really ain't that brave…"

Farmer watched her cough and patted her on the knee. "Sassy, yo're th' bravest lil' smurflin' in th' _whole world_ fo' smurfin' through this… An' guess wha'." He said, not waiting for an answer, "Ah talked t' Greedy, an' he said he's gon' make all your favorite cakes for th' Christmas party."

Sassette smiled and looked up at him. "Hungry hummingbirds… That sounds smurfy, Farmer!" she said, "_Bu' I'm not goin' to th' Christmas party_."

Farmer and the Smurflings looked at each other curiously. "You're not goin' to th' Christmas party, Sassette?" Snappy piped up.

"Bu' you've been talkin' 'bout it for _weeks_! It's your favorite holiday!" Nat added.

"Yeah," Slouchy chimed in, "I know you're sad 'bout loosin' your hair an' stuff, bu' it's Christmas. Y'can't jus' stay at home…"

She shook her head a little. "It's not _jus_' 'bout my hair anymore…" She said softly, running her fingers over the thin veil that was her hair, "I guess I've kinda gotten less sad about it…"

She rolled over, burying her face into the pillow. "It's… it's the _looks_ I get…" she whimpered, "all those eyes smurfed to me… an'-an'-an' all th' _whispers_ an' stuff… It_- it just makes me think it'd be a mistake for somesmurf t' bring a girl with no hair t' this party_…"

She cried a little in the pillow. I felt my heart sink in my chest. I didn't even know what to say to her that could make it better. I just put a hand on her back and rubbed it a little bit. Snappy and Nat on the other hand scooted right over to her, and forced her to look at them. "Don' be stupid, Sassette! It _WOULDN'T_ be a mistake!" Snappy protested, then bared his fists like his idol, Hefty, "An' if anysmurf thought it was, why I'd- _I'd_—"

"What this hickory nut's _TRYIN'_ t'say," Nat intervened, "We won' let _anysmurf_ hurt you. Not with those looks, an' not any other way. Anysmurf who _DOES_ try an' hurt you answers t' _US_."

Sassette looked up at them and smiled a little, but kept her face buried in the pillow. We tried to reason with her more, but our words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Farmer seemed to be the first to realize, because after awhile he turned to the smurfling boys and asked them to help with his Iceberry harvest. They initially refused, as always, but eventually caved and left with Farmer. I gave Sassette a few little pats on the back. "See you at supper, Sassette." I said in a quiet goodbye.

She looked up and smiled at me. "Yeah…See you at supper."

_How wrong I was…_

**(Slouchy)**

We were helping Farmer with the Iceberry crops. We'd done it a thousand times before, but now it seemed so much less fun than normal. Sassette seemed worse today at treatment. She always had an upset tummy, and sometimes she did puke, and all, but she just looked so much sicker today… I think Snappy and Nat could tell too. They seemed to have the same amount of energy and eagerness that I did. That really wasn't much. Smurf, I think even Farmer could tell something wasn't smurfy about her today… she didn't even want to go to the Christmas party—she _never_ misses out on the village Christmas party! Christmas is her favorite holiday. _I didn't know all those looks from the others hurt her so much… _

Somewhere else in the village, there was a loud bell noise. "You boys go'n wash up fo' supper," Farmer said, picking a few more of the pale blue berries, "Ah'll go check on Sassy."

We quietly went back to the village and washed up. "Maybe we shou' go check on Sassette too." I suggested.

"Nah," Snappy replied, "She's prolly at dinner anyways. We'd jus' be wasting th' trip."

I shrugged. He's right. No matter how sick she is during the day, she's always been better by dinner. We walked to the mess hall. I opened the doors, and expected to get tackled by a little pink and blue blur.

_But we weren't_.

In fact, I couldn't even see Sassette anywhere. She wasn't sitting at our table. She wasn't waiting in line. She wasn't anywhere. And neither was Farmer. Vanity was sitting all alone next to Smurfette, no Farmer in sight. "Guys," I said, turning back to Nat and Snappy, "Somethin's _wrong_…"

They nodded uneasily. "C'mon." I added, "Les' go talk t' Smurfette."

They followed close behind as I walked to Smurfette and Vanity. "Hiya Smurfette!" Nat said loudly.

She turned around and smiled sweetly at us. "Hello Nat, Snappy, Slouchy." She looked confused for a moment, "where's Sassette?"

I shrugged. "That's what we wanted t' ask _you_." I said. "We haven' seen'er since she smurfed her medicine."

"Oh dear," Smurfette said. "You don't think she's still at Papa smurf's lab, do you?"

"I'm not surprised," Snappy said, "She was so sad 'bout loosin' her hair an' stuff she's prolly hiding there."

Vanity turned his attention from his mirror. "Yeah, bu' tha' doesn' explain why we can't find _Farmer_ either." Nat added, "He said he was gon' go check on her, bu' he hasn' come back. Isn't that jus' a _little_ strange, Snappy?"

"Something _IS_ strange," Vanity muttered, "But dinner isn't over yet. He's probably just trying to convince Sassette to come out and see my pretty face." he cast a conceited look at his mirror. "Looks _this_ good can probably cure the sick, you know."

Nat, Snappy and I shared an eye-roll. "Well, I'm not sure about _half_ of that," Smurfette said, an amused look on her face, "but Vanity's right, he's probably just trying to convince Sassette to come out. You three should have some dinner, then we'll go check on her."

Something still didn't sit right with me. But Nat and Snappy both agreed, and stepped into line for dinner. Once we had our dinners, we ate pretty fast so we could hurry over to go check on Sassette. Actually, I think we were the first to finish. "We'll meet you over there, Smurfette." Nat said as we all went out the mess hall door.

We all walked over there, a slightly faster pace than normal. Once we got there, the door was closed and the windows had the shades down. Snappy and Nat looked at me, sharing the same scowl of concern. Snappy knocked real loud on the door. Brainy was the one who answered it. "Oh. It's the smurflings," he said, looking uncomfortable. "Papa smurf is very busy right now, try smurfing by later."

He tried to close the door, but Snappy put his foot in between the door and the frame. "Bu' Brainy, we're just lookin' for Sassette." He said, "We haven' seen her since she smurfed her medicine today. Is she still here?"

Brainy looked like he was sweating nervously, looking everywhere, trying to think. He cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. "O-Of course not, don't be ridiculous!" he stammered.

A loud coughing noise coming from inside the lab proved him wrong. "Brainyyy…" Nat frowned and crossed his arms, "why're you lying to us? _Where is Sassette_?"

"This is for your own good, smurflings," Brainy replied, trying to push Snappy's foot out the door with his own. "Trust me, _trust me_, this's for your own good."

"I do'_wan_ what's 'for my own good!'" Snappy said defiantly, refusing to move his foot, "_We wanna see Sassette_!"

Brainy must've known we weren't going to leave, because he rolled his eyes and shook his head in defeat. "Okay, _okay_!" he said, opening the door more, "But you can't say I didn't smurf you…"

We moved around him and looked around the lab. We froze at what we saw. Farmer smurf was sitting beside a bed. Sassette was under the covers. But she had these weird tubes in her hands. And one big tube with in her mouth down her throat. That big tube was connected to a big machine that seemed to pump something at a steady rhythm. Sassette looked like she was struggling to stay awake. _Stay awake or stay_… "P-P-Papa smurf…?" Nat asked in a voice I couldn't recognize. "Wh-wh-what _is_ all this?"

Papa smurf had been standing by his table with all the potions, tears in his eyes as he watched the machine. He looked at us, and walked around the table to meet us. He put his hands on mine and Snappy's shoulders, then started to lead us upstairs. "Smurflings…" he said, pain in his voice, "_we need to talk_."

I felt real scared hearing him with that—that _voice_. He never sounded so scared, or so sad. Not even when we found out about Sassette's cancer. Once we were upstairs in his bedroom, away from all the unsmurfy noise downstairs, he sat us all down on his bed, and sat across from us. "Boys…" he said, "You understand that none of this is your fault?"

The three of us looked at each other and nodded. "And you realize that _nothing _could've been done to prevent this?"

We looked at each other again, our faces looking more scared and nodded. What was going on downstairs? "My little smurflings…" Papa smurf said, wiping his eyes, "I…_I'm afraid we may be very close the end of Sassette's fight_. That machine downstairs is the _only_ thing that's keeping her breathing right now…"

My heart nearly stopped. _Did he… Did he really just say that_? "Wh—Whaddyou mean, Papa smurf?" Snappy said, shock all over his face. "Sh… She was just _FINE_ earlier!"

Papa smurf stood up and sat with us on the bed. "I'm saying, Snappy," he said, putting a hand on Snappy's shoulder, "She took a turn for the worst after she smurfed her medicine… _I'm saying that Sassette might not live through the night_."

I felt tears in my eyes. "_NO_… She… She _can't_ die…" Nat squeaked a little, hugging Papa smurf and wiping his tears. "She… She's our _friend_… _She can't_…."

I sniffled and cried a lot, and hugged Papa smurf too. "It's not fair_… it's just not fair_…" I said in between more crying.

"I know, my little smurflings." Papa smurf said, wiping his eyes, "Sometimes these things happen. Sometimes, no matter _how strong_ somesmurf is, sometimes strong medicines and close friends _just_ aren't enough."

Even Snappy had started crying. He pulled his knees up to his chest and shook his head, wiping his eyes and runny nose with the backs of his hands. "_NO_… She _**PROMISED**_!" he almost shouted, wiping his eyes, "She _**PROMISED**_!"

He got down from the bed and immediately started running down the stairs. Papa smurf let go of me and Nat and followed him. Nat and I followed him too, trying not to trip as we ran down the stairs. When we were finally downstairs, Snappy had pushed Farmer aside, and folded Sassette's fingers into a fist with her pinkie out. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. "_You __**PROMISED**__ you weren't gonna be sad! You __**PROMISED**__ us we were all gon' go on tha' trip! R'member? You made us __**PINKIE-PROMISE**__ you we were all gon' go on tha' darn trip!_" He shouted loudly, linking their pinkies, "_You __**NEVER**__ let us forget our promises. Now it's __**OUR TURN**__. _You- you _**PROMISED**_ us you weren' gonna leave us… _Tha' you were gon' be okay_…" he started to break down next to the bed, "You _**promised**_… S-so _please_… D-don' die, Sassette… _P-please_…"

Papa smurf carefully uncurled their fingers and let Snappy sob into his shoulder. Nat and I moved up to where her face was. "Snappy's right," I said, wiping my face, "You _always_ hold us to our promises… An' _I_ promised _you_ you'd be okay… An' _you_ promised _us _we'd all go on tha' trip…" I linked our pinkies like Snappy did. "_S-so promise us you'll be okay tonight._"

I don't think she could talk with that pipe down her throat. But she gave my finger a squeeze. Her glassy, almost bloodshot eyes gave me my answer. _I promise… But I can't guarantee anything…_


	7. She Promised

**HEWOO! :D **

**Sorry this chapter's so short(and sucky XD) T_T writer's block sucks like a vaccume! plus I caught the cold from h-e- double-hockey-sticks and my mind's not all there today XD**

**To Chloe: I have the link to the preview in my profile :D yes, it will be on youtube. **

**because there's probably only going to be another one or two chapters, I'll give you guys a really big hint:**

**Hint#1- The song name starts with an "S"**

**Hint#2- It was made in 2005.**

**Hint#3- One word title.**

**Hint#4- it's from the Country genre**

**hehe! keep your reviews comin! I love hearing ya'lls thoughts :D**

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><p><strong>(Slouchy)<strong>

Nat and I sat around the bed, watching the big machine behind Sassette's bed. It seemed keep sort of a rhythm. _One. Two. One. Two_. Snappy was still sobbing a little in Papa smurf's arms. I looked at Farmer. He looked deep in thought, watching Sassette. There was a knock at the door. "C-come in…" Papa smurf called.

The door opened. Vanity and Smurfette were standing in the doorway. Once Smurfette looked in our direction, she froze. Her skin flushed to a light color. Her knees looked wobbly, she looked like she was about to collapse. "V-Vanity…" she said, then wrapped her arms around her friend.

Vanity didn't look much better. His eyes were fixed on the bed, and the big machine and stuff behind it. He tried comforting Smurfette, but to no real avail. Papa smurf noticed her sadness, and said quiet words to Snappy. Snappy sniffled a little, and nodded his head. Farmer sat him on his knee, next to Sassette. Papa smurf stood up and walked to Smurfette and Vanity. He hugged them both for a moment, talking to them quietly. It didn't seem like something to watch, so I sat next to Sassette on the bed. "I wonder wha' time it is." I thought out loud.

Farmer looked at the big grandfather clock in the corner. "It's 'bout a quarter t' seven, shug." He said.

Nat looked out the window, watching the darkening sky. "I guess those birds're prolly goin' on another trip by now." Snappy said, wiping his eyes and sitting next to Sassette on her other side.

"Naw, they've prolly migrated already." Nat said, "It's winter. They're prolly lon' gone south by now."

"Nuh-uh, Papa smurf said they stay all year round!" Snappy said, slowly being more like the Snappy we know.

"When hedgehogs fly!" Nat said, putting his hands on his hips. "All birds go south for th' winter, Snappy."

"Well, these ones don'!" Snappy folded his arms boldly

Just as their debate started to turn into a full out argument, Vanity and Smurfette came closer to the bed. Smurfette sat next to me, and took Sassette's hand. She looked worn out and sad, to say the least. Like the whole village was on her back. On the other side of the bed, Vanity walked up behind Farmer and put a hand on his shoulder. Farmer sighed a little and took Vanity's hand. "Farmer," Vanity said softly, "May I talk to you in private?"

Farmer nodded and ran his finger over Sassette's cheek. He looked sad and still deep in thought, like he had a lot to say, but didn't have the words to say it. He stood up from his chair, then walked upstairs to talk with Vanity. They weren't up there for more than a couple minutes before Snappy finally-well- _snapped_. "Okay, Mr. Smarty-smurf!" he said, standing up, "You think you're so smart, les' go ask _Farmer _who's right!"

"Bu' they're still talkin'…" I said, watching Nat stand up and start for the stairs.

They didn't listen to me. I shrugged my shoulders, then started after them. They tromped up the stairs, stepping up two at a time. Just before Snappy knocked on the door- "_Dad GUM, Ah won' do it, Van'ty!_" Farmer's voice boomed from behind the door.

Snappy looked at me with a confused look. I shrugged my shoulders, then walked up the stairs so I could peek in the keyhole. Nat and Snappy did the same. "Smurf over, Slouchy!" Snappy whispered at me, "I can't see!"

We fought for a minute for the best view through the keyhole. Not that it mattered. It only showed a corner of the room. And Vanity and Farmer weren't in that corner anyways. "Farmer, I know it's hard," I heard Vanity's voice, "But you're going to _HAVE _to do it sooner or later."

"Then Ah'll _DO_ it _later_, shugah."

Farmer paced into our view, covering his eyes with his hand. Vanity approached him, putting his hand on his arm. "Farmer- honey, _please,_ be realistic." Vanity said, "I _know_ you don't want to do this… I don't either, I've got enough worry lines as it is… But if not now then you'll _have_ to later."

"_Van'ty, Ah'm not makin' funeral 'rangements for Sassette when she's not even dead_," Farmer replied, shaking his head and moving Vanity's hand from his arm. "It jus' ain't right t' talk 'bout her like she's already dead."

I felt my heart practically stop. _This… It's real… Sassette could really die_… "Farmer…" Vanity said, turning Farmer towards him, "You heard what Papa smurf said. Sassette's not doing well… She's using a _machine_ to _breathe_, for smurf's sake!" his voice seemed to catch in his throat, "I think it'd be better for everysmurf involved if we took care of this now, then when it actually does happen, we can grieve in peace."

Farmer covered his face and paced out of the keyhole's sight. "_Tha's what's botherin' me, Van'ty!_!" Farmer shouted. "You keep sayin' _**WHEN**__._ Not if, but _**WHEN**_**.** Dad _GUM_, shugah! She ain't dead yet! It ain't '_**when**_'! It's _**IF**_! Dag-nabbit, Van'ty, _**IF**_!"

"Farmer, honey, calm down!"

"Ah will _NOT_ calm down, shugah!" Farmer shouted more, "Sassette ain't goin' down without a fight. It ain't over til th' Greedy smurf sings!"

Farmer's voice sounded broken, not the strong smurf we'd all come to know. It was scary hearing him sound so scared and sad… Even though it had been such a common tone lately… "Farmer…" Vanity's voice was soft, "Sassette's fought this as best as she could. But she's _scared_ right now… You know as well as I do that she probably doesn't have much time left. "

He paused for a moment, "_She needs her mentor, Farmer_..." he continued softly, "She needs you to _accept_ this… And I think it'd be easier to accept it if all of us eased into it… Believe you me, I don't want to do this any more than you do. Just thinking about it's given me stress acne. Just _look _at me! I look like a teensmurfer!" he whined a little.

He whined and fussed for a moment before getting back on track."My point smurfing," he said, softer, "I think it'll help us all have some closure wh—"he stopped himself- "_**IF**_… the time comes…"

Heavy sigh. "Van'ty…" Farmer said, his voice breaking, "Ah understand wha'you're tryin' t' do… Bu' Sassette's not dead yet… _Ah'll plan for her funeral when an' when an' if the time comes, and not a second sooner_."

I looked at Nat and Snappy. They both had tears rolling down their cheeks. I did too. Just the thought of having to plan a funeral at all, not even just for Sassette… _It's a scary thought… I don't understand how the grown ups can do it…_ My heart nearly stopped when the door started rattling a little bit. Snappy and Nat both jumped and started going down the stairs. I don't know why, but I just stood there. _This's real… Sassette's really dying… _The door opened, and Farmer stood in the doorway. "Slouchy…" he said, sounding a lot calmer than he did a few minutes ago. "How much did you hear?"

I looked down and wiped my face with the backs of my hands. "P-pretty much everythin'…." I said plainly. "She's… _She's really dying, isn't she, Farmer_?"

Farmer sat down on the edge of the stairs and opened his arms. "Shugah… C'mere…" he said, his voice sounding broken again.

I blinked back more tears and sat next to him. He put his arm around my shoulder, moving me out of the way as Vanity sat on the step just below. "Nothin's set in stone, Slouchy," Farmer whispered to me, "Sassette's the _strongest _lil' smurflin' Ah know… She's fought this thin' this long, she sure as smurf ain't gon' give up now. If Ah know Sassette, she's gon' go down kickin' an' screamin'. Not like this."

I sniffled a little and nodded. "Chin up, lil' fella." He said, smiling a little bit, "It ain't over yet. She's not dead, an' Ah r'fuse t' let m'self, or anysmurf else think she is."

I sniffed a little, and hugged Farmer. Vanity watched us from his mirror, guilt in his face. I guess I understood what he was trying to do… But it really didn't feel right to think about it like that…or at _ALL_ for that matter…

**(Smurfette)**

I had been so preoccupied with Sassette and the situation going on, I hardly even noticed the boys leave. Sassette looked so… So… _Frail_…. More of her hair would come out whenever somesmurf touched it… She looked like a living corpse… barely living at that. Her eyes were bloodshot and half open. Her lips were chapped and peeling. Her fingernails were brittle and breaking. Her skin was pale and pasty. I was so scared… Papa smurf had told Vanity and I that she might not be much longer for our world… I laid my head down on the bed and cried a little. No. A lot. I cried a _LOT_. _Sassette can't die!_

I felt a hand on my head, then looked up. Sassette was looking at me, a small smile in the corners of her lips and her eyes red and teary. She probably couldn't speak because of those unsmurfy tubes down her throat. But even without words I could understand her. _Don't cry, Smurfette… I'm scared… But you shouldn't be…_

I moved her hand from my head and held it to my face. _Just a month ago I was teaching her how to fishtail- braid her hair… Now… Now at only 130 years old she's fighting for her life…_ In just a few short hours, she went from being okay to—this… It tore at my heart.

There was a loud knock on the door. Papa smurf had been absentmindedly mixing another potion with Brainy. "Come in." he called.

The door opened and Handy walked through the door. "H'lo, Papa smurf," he said solemnly, "Just came to check on Sassette and the Venismurfsion machine."

"Ah, yes." Papa smurf said, walking towards the machine with Handy. "Your machine is doing smurfily, Handy." His voice hushed to a mutter, "Although I'm afraid I can't say the same about poor Sassette."

Handy ducked his head a little, and looked at Sassette. "What good is it to make a machine that still won't save somesmurf you love…?" he muttered a little, taking a seat next to Sassette.

He looked like he'd lost all hope for the little smurfling… He ran his hand over her forehead and rubbed her cheek with his thumb. "I… I haven't even been around…" he muttered, blinking and frowning, "She's been so sick, and I've been up to my smurfs in village repairs…" he shook his head. "_I should've been here_…"

I looked up at Handy. He had tears in his eyes watching the machine pump air. "It's _not _your fault, Handy," I said quietly, "That's your _job_, to make repairs in the village."

Handy nodded and tried to blink away more tears. "I know… B-but—I can't help but feel _responsible_ for all this…" he said, "I should've gone with them that morning… I should've been _watching_ them…"

He drew a jagged breath and wiped his eyes. "_Smurf, Sassette, why couldn't you've just listened to me and stayed away from the Great Oak…?_"

I was about to say something, when Snappy and Nat came barreling down the stairs. They ricocheted off the wall at the bottom of the stairs and darted right over to the bed, breathing a little heavily. "Almost caught us!" Nat said to Snappy.

"Almost caught you doing what, exactly?" Handy asked, wiping his eyes and turning away from Sassette and looking at the smurfling boys.

Snappy and Nat looked guilty for a second. "Umm.. Nothin'…" Snappy replied, putting his hands behind his back and looking around a little.

Handy arched his eyebrow. "Nothing? What kind of 'nothing'?" he asked.

The boys squirmed in place, "Jus—_nothin'_, nothin'," Nat said, sitting down next to me.

Handy looked Snappy right in the eyes. "Then why were you running?"

Snappy shrugged "Uh- I dunno."

Handy gave him a look, "_Snappyyyy_…"

"Okay! Okay! We were listenin' t' Vanity n' Farmer talkin' an' they started coming out of Papa smurf's room, so we kinda ran…" Snappy sheepishly admitted.

"'Cept Slouchy. He jus' kinda stood there." Nat shrugged.

Handy made a tch noise and shook his head. "Boys… Hasn't Papa smurf ever told you it's wrong to eavesdrop?"

"Bu' Handy, they were talkin' bout Sassette!" Snappy defended himself, then looked at Sassette with sad eyes, "Th—they were talkin' bout _funerals_ an' stuff…"

My heart froze a little in my chest_. I should've known this was coming_. The topic would've had to come up eventually… "I understand, Snappy…" Handy said, his tone more gentle, "But no matter what it's about, it's not right to eavesdrop."

Handy felt around his waistline for his tools so he could work on the machine like he'd originally set out to do, only to find them missing. He sighed a little. "I left my tool belt in my workshop… Nat, Snappy, could one of you go get it?"

"I'll get it, Handy," Nat said with a smile and started walking out the door.

"_No fair_! I wanna get it!" Snappy snapped, following him.

Even with everything going on, I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. "You really have a way with those kids, Handy." I said.

He cracked a little smile, turning around back to Sassette. "Well, when you get smurf-sitting duty most days of the week, you pick up a few tricks." He said dryly.

He sat and waited for the smurflings to return. His sad face looked tired and worn out from all the work he did around the village. I wanted to hug him, tell him none of this was his fault. But somehow… I just couldn't find the words. There was sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. I looked up to see Farmer, Vanity, and Slouchy walking down the stairs, wiping their eyes a little. "'Lo, Handy," Farmer said, taking a seat next to him.

"H'lo, Farmer." Handy replied cordially.

Slouchy sat down right on the bed, next to me. He watched Sassette with half-closed eyes, a solemn look on his little face. Solemn—or tired maybe. It was almost the smurflings' bedtime.

Out of seemingly nowhere, the door opened and Snappy and Nat appeared, fighting over the tool belt in their hands. Handy stood up and plucked it from their grasp before the argument could progress any further. "Thanks, guys," he said to diffuse the situation.

He clipped it around his waist and set to work tightening loose bolts and making sure the machine was in working order. He looked more at ease working on the machine. Granted, he still looked on edge and guilty, but some of that seemed to be lifted from tending to the machine.

It wasn't long before he was done working on the Venismurfilation machine. Once he was, he seemed guilty and eager to leave. "I-it's doing just fine," he said, finding it hard to look at Sassette, "I-I have t' go now…"

Snappy looked back at him and walked up to him. "Bu' Handy!" he said, "Wha' bout Sassette?"

Handy seemed to freeze at the smurfling's question. But, slowly he turned around and sat again for a moment. "G-G- Good night, Sassette..." he said, blinking back tears of guilt. "I-I'm sorry there isn't more I can do now…"

Sassette smiled as best as she could. Handy retreated from her kind smile, and hid his face in shame. He hurried out of the lab, looking guiltier than ever. Papa smurf walked around from his table and approached the bed. "Poor Handy," he muttered, mostly to himself, "he shouldn't feel so guilty…"

He ran his hand over Sassette's forehead, moving what was left of her hair from her face. But when he retracted his hand… The rest of her hair came with it. He stared at it for a moment, eyes full of sadness. He tried as best as he could to hide it from Sassette's sight, and dropped it into a wastebasket nearby.

_So that's it then. Sassette's lost all her hair. She's using a machine to breathe. It'd take a miracle for her to make it through this… _

**(Slouchy) **

A little time passed before Brainy and Vanity left to go to bed. But Snappy, Nat, Farmer, Smurfette and I stayed. Papa smurf tried to get us to leave. But Snappy and Nat and I were pretty determined to stay. If tonight really _WAS_ the night she was gonna die, we didn't want her to be alone. Smurfette and Farmer both understood that. They knew we weren't going to leave her til it was all over.

More time passed, and we were starting to get sleepy. But I kept my eyes open, and I sat up and pinched my arm when I felt myself trying to sleep_. No way I'm letting Sassette go alone!_ "Slouchy… It's getting late," Papa smurf said quietly from across the room, "It's nearly midnight… At least _TRY_ to smurf some sleep."

I shook my head. "Mm-mm, Papa smurf." I said, "_I do'wan' Sassette t' feel alone_."

I think he could tell I wasn't going to let myself fall asleep that easily. He turned down the burner on the potion he was working on, and sat next to Smurfette, who was falling asleep in her chair. He put a blanket over her shoulders and gave her a kiss on the forehead. She muttered in reply and slumped over on the bed. Nat and Snappy were both curled up at the foot of the bed, fast asleep. I can't say that I blamed them. It was a long day, and I really wanted to sleep too. But I didn't want to leave Sassette alone. Everyone except for me and Papa smurf was asleep now, and if she woke up in the night, I knew she'd be scared if everyone else was asleep. I sat up, leaning against the headboard, stubbornly not wanting to sleep. Papa smurf watched me with tired eyes, saying different things to get me to fall asleep. But I sure wouldn't! I refused to fall asleep.

Then, Papa smurf started humming a little, catching me off-guard. As he hummed a little more, I realized he was humming a lullaby he used to sing to us a long time ago. As the familiar notes and tune of the song buzzed in my ears, I felt my eyes harder and harder to keep open. I slumped a little against the headboard, settling down in an awkward half- sitting position next to Sassette. "_Won' fall 'sleep_…" I muttered, "I _Won_' fall 'sleep…"

Papa smurf seemed to half smile amused at my determination, and kept humming. I patted my cheeks, trying to wake myself up a little more. _No way am I gonna fall asleep!_

Papa smurf was relentless in humming the lullaby. I scooched to lie down now, still stubbornly trying to stay awake next to my sleeping friend. "No… _Way_…." I muttered, "_Won_'…. Fall…. 'Sleep…"

The chair Papa smurf was sitting in creaked a little bit as he stood up and walked to a green cupboard, still humming. He opened up the doors, and picked up a couple of blankets. He closed the doors quietly and walked back to the bed. I watched as he tucked a blanket around Farmer, who was leaning backwards in his chair with his hat tilted over his face. Farmer stirred a little bit, then subconsciously wrapped the blanket around himself and sighed. Papa smurf took another blanket he had on his arm and tucked Snappy and Nat underneath it. When he put one on top of me, I sorta half- heartedly moved it off. _I don't need a blanket if I'm not going to sleep_! But as he kept humming… sleep started sounding more and more like a better idea… I yawned a little, and covered my mouth with my hand. "_Won'….. Fall…. 'Sleep_….." I muttered.

Maybe I'll just rest my eyes for a minute… I thought, letting my head rest next to Sassette's. I felt Papa smurf tuck the blanket around me again, and I didn't fight as hard to kick it off. "_Won'…. Won'_….." I murmured tiredly.

Papa smurf soon interrupted me. "_Shh… Shh_… Goodnight, my stubborn little smurfling." He said softly, giving me a kiss on the forehead.

I couldn't fight it any more. I fell asleep right then and there before I could say anything else about it.

I didn't have any dreams or anything last night. In fact, I didn't even really remember anything from last night, Papa smurf told me what I did and what I was saying the next day. All I remembered was waking up next to Sassette, and noticing her eyes were still closed. I sat up a little and looked around. Snappy, Nat, Farmer and Smurfette were all awake. So why wasn't Sassette? Farmer looked at Smurfette with fear in his eyes. Fear? _Wait. What's going on_? I asked myself, _Why does everysmurf look so scared_? Nat moved more up where I was laying and poked Sassette in her tummy. "Sassette? Are you 'wake?"

She didn't answer. She didn't blink her eyes, or move, or nothing to let us know she heard. Snappy moved from where he sat at the foot of the bed. He shook Sassette a little. "Sassette... wake _up!_" He said. "It's… It's morning now! _Y'gotta wake up_!"

Immediately I was scared. _Did she…?_ I shook her harder, desperately trying to wake her up. "Sassette… Sassette, _PLEASE _wake up!" I said in a voice that didn't even sound like mine, "_wake up_!"

She still didn't respond. Immediately I felt my heart drop in my stomach, and tears blur up my vision. "N-_no_…" I said, "S-she _CAN'T_ be dead…"

Farmer bowed his head and took off his hat, using it to cover his face. Smurfette started crying. Snappy looked at Sassette, sniffing a little, trying to hold back tears. Nat started crying right then and there, gently hugging Sassette around the waist. I just held her hand, tears dribbling down my face shamelessly and loud sobs shaking my whole body. _She can't be gone… She CAN'T be…_

Then all at once, everysmurf's crying sorta_… Stopped_. Either that or I just couldn't hear them anymore. I paid no attention to them, just kept holding onto Sassette's hand, trying to get ahold of myself. _What'll we do now that Sassette's gone?_

I felt somesmurf's hand touch mine. At first I kinda shook it off, thinking it was Farmer, or Smurfette's trying to get me away from Sassette. But the hand still touched mine, and curled my hand into a fist with my pinkie sticking out. Confused, I opened my eyes to see who was doing this with my hand.

It _wasn't_ Smurfette or Farmer.

And it _wasn't_ Nat or Snappy either.

When I looked at the owner of the hand, I felt my breath freeze.

_Sassette was looking up at me, her bloodshot eyes half open, a small smile on her face. _

I was stunned. _"S-Sassette_?" I whispered, almost too shocked to speak.

She linked our pinkies and smiled as best as she could. Keeping a rhythm with the machine, she opened her mouth. "_I…_." the machine made her inhale, then on the exhale cycle she spoke again, "_Promised_…."


	8. Where His Hat Had Been

**HEY Y'ALL :D SF here :D Keep your shirts on, it's just the last chapter! Can you believe this story's already over? D: Still... I can't say this (LONG) chapter wasn't fun to write...Still! Far out man! XD**

**I'd really like to thank CartoonCaster21, FlowerPower71, Zinka17, and Fan de Basil de Baker Street, and of course all my anonymus reviewers :D You guys all rock! :D**

**Give up about the song yet?**

**here's your final hint, and the answer will be given at the end :D**

**Hint#1- The song name starts with an "S"**

**Hint#2- It was made in 2005.**

**Hint#3- One word title.**

**Hint#4- it's from the Country genre**

**Hint#5- It's about cancer **

**Hint#6- read the underlined letters -_-;**

**See y'all next run! :D c'mon back now, y'hear? XD**

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><p><strong>(Slouchy)<strong>

There was no other explanation for it. Sassette was some kinda miracle. She lived through the night. Then the next night. Then the _next_ night. Pretty soon, she could sit up on her own and talk in rhythm with the Venismurfsion machine. Papa smurf still had to give her those yucky medicines, but she was actually getting better, I think. About five days after that night, she started doing something we all kinda thought she'd never be able to do again…

Papa smurf and Nat and Snappy and I were all around the bed, Handy next to the machine. Papa smurf was holding Sassette's hand reassuringly. "We'll be right here, every smurf of the way," Papa smurf said, "Just try to breathe normally… no talking, or laughing, or anything. Just breathe like you normally would."

Sassette nodded her head a little bit. "Okay…." The machine forced her to inhale. "Pappy…"

Papa smurf gave her hand a little squeeze and a smile. "And if you feel like you're starting to get short breath at all, even just a _little_, give my hand a squeeze and we'll turn it back on, alright?"

Sassette nodded. "Ready, Sassette?" Nat asked her.

Sassette smiled in reply "Hollerin' Her-" the machine forced her to take a breath-"Hermit crabs, Nat! I sure-" the machine inhaled again,"-am!"

Handy put a hand on a dial on the machine. "Orright… on the count'a smurf…." He said. "One… Two… Three_… SMURF_!"

He slowly turned the dial, slowly making the machine turn off. We all held our breaths.

_This was the moment of truth._

Slowly, Sassette breathed in real deep, then exhaled again, a wide smile on her face. We all breathed out, relieved. Sassette followed the same pattern of inhaling and exhaling for a few breaths. Then after a little while, she gave Papa smurf's hand a hard squeeze and started nodding her head.

Papa smurf nodded to Handy, who slowly turned the dial back on again. The machine slowly kicked back on, forcing air through Sassette's damaged lungs. She smiled real wide, and actually had tears rolling down her cheeks when she looked at us. "I…."she said, her voice full of pride, "I _did _it…."

_Sassette took a breath all by herself._

After about two weeks of "weaning", as Papa smurf called it, she could breathe without any help from the Venismurfsion machine. She still had to stay in bed, but she could still play with us, and we'd play with our pirate ships on her blue blankets, pretending it was the ocean. When Sassette could finally get out of bed, it was almost time for the village Christmas party. There was lots of snow on the ground, and all the smurfs were busy decorating Greedy's mess hall with mistletoe and stuff for the party.

Snappy, Nat and I were with Sassette in the lab after she'd taken her medicines for the day. Her tummy still hurt, so we were gonna stick around for her for a little while until she was feeling better. Papa smurf was outside helping everysmurf with the decorations and stuff. Brainy, of course, was out telling the others how they ought to be smurfing their lights and stuff, and ended up making some kind of a snow angel heaven outside the village with how much he was getting kicked out. Snappy stood on his tiptoes and watched all the activity outside as the whole village made Christmas preparations. Smurfs were hanging wreaths on doors, hanging garland between the houses, putting bright colored lights up on the roofs, singing Christmas carols. Even from the lab we could smell Greedy's Christmas gingersmurf cookies. _We'll have to go smurf a few later_, I mentally reminded myself.

"Golly, jus' look at all this Chris'mas stuff!" Snappy said, turning back to us for a minute, then looking back outside at all the pretty lights and stuff.

Nat looked out the window with him. "Yeah." He said, "An' pretty soon it's gon' be th' village Christmas party."

"I think it's gon' be pretty smurfy this year," I said, smiling a little at all the holiday cheer, "Greedy an' Farmer were up all night las' week smurfin' up more sarsaparilla cider."

"Whaddyou think Sassette?" Nat said, looking at Sassette in the bed.

Sassette curled up and faced away. "Jolly jackrabbits, Nat, how should I know?" she said, "_I'm not goin'_, 'member?"

I looked at her. She looked sad and tired, and she kept her face hidden from us. "Aw, c'mon, Sassette!" Snappy said, sitting back down across from her, "It'll be fun. It's _Chris'mas_, y' can't jus' be all 'lone."

"Well I do'wanna go to th' _party_," she said, curling up tighter, "All my hair's _gone_… _everysmurf_'s gon' look at me!"

"Well, _sure_ everysmurf's gon' look at'cha." I shrugged, "they're all 'mazed that you've been so strong with th' whole cancer thing, _course_ they're gon' look at'cha."

I guess that didn't help too much. She just seemed to retreat more into a tight little ball, burying her face under the pillow. "Listen, Sassette," Nat said, "We don' wan' you t' be all 'lone on Chris'mas… _Please_ come with us?"

She didn't answer. She didn't even shake her head under the pillow or anything to acknowledge that she heard us. There was a loud knock on the door. Then the door simply opened, and Handy poked his head in and looked around. "Heya smurflings," he said, "Is Papa smurf home? He asked me to help him fix his Christmas lights."

I shook my head. "Nope. Las' I heard he was over at Greedy's kitchen helpin' with the Gingersmurf Cookies."

Handy muttered for a minute, then looked and noticed Sassette all curled up on the bed. "Hey… Sassette, what's wrong?" he said, coming over to the bed and sitting down next to her feet.

"She doesn' wan' go to th' Chris'mas party," Snappy said, "We're tryin' t' get'er t' come with us."

Handy frowned and moved the pillow off her face. "Aw, how come you don't wanna go, Sassette?" he asked, "It's _Christmas_, it's the smurfiest time of the year."

"I _KNOW_, Handy," she said, blinking a lot and sniffing loudly. "B-but everysmurf's gonna look at me… Not even a good kinda look, they're all gonna look at me an' talk about me when they think I'm not looking or can't hear… A girl withou' any hair… goin' to this party…"

Her lower lip twitched a little and she sat up and hugged Handy. "It'd be a _mistake_, Handy…" she said, wiping her face with her hands. "No'un'd wanna come near me with this look, an' this- this- _thing_ in me!" she gestured to the needle and tubes in her chest.

Handy hugged her tight around the shoulder, swaying a little and muttering words of comfort under his breath. "It's alright, Sassette… It _wouldn't_ be a mistake…" he said, "I know plenty of escorts that'd be proud to go with you, no matter _what_ you looked like."

Sassette let go of him and put her hands on her hips. "Yeah? Like who?" she said, almost sarcastically.

Handy thought for a moment, rolling his eyes to the left thoughtfully, "Hmmm, well _me_, for one." He said, "And _Farmer_, and _Papa_, and _Smurfette_, and _Hefty_, and _Greedy_…"

Then he looked at me and the smurflings. "And let's not forget _Nat_, _Snappy_ and _Slouchy_," he said with a smile. "Any one of us'd be _smurf_ proud to be a certain young lady's escort tomorrow."

"Tha's what we've been tryin' t' tell her," Snappy rolled his eyes, "She doesn' believe us!"

Sassette wiped her eyes more and hugged Handy again, tighter. "Well then maybe we should _show_ her," Handy replied, smiling a little at the smurfling.

Handy stood up from his seat on the bed and took Sassette's hand in an old-timey polite gentlesmurf way. "Sassette, would you do us gentlesmurfs the honor of accompanying us to the Christmas party tomorrow evening?" he asked, smiling politely and gesturing to Snappy, Nat and me.

Sassette smiled a little bit back, but shook her head and sat with her knees smurfed to her chest. "You're jus' doin' this cause you know I do'wanna go… An' you think tha' actin' all gentlesmurfly's gonna get me t' say yes."

Handy shrugged a little bit and smiled smugly, "well, is it working?"

Sassette gave him a little pout. But before she could answer him, Greedy rang the dinner bell. "You guys go'n get some dinner, my tummy's still upset." Sassette said smiling and rolling over on the bed.

I think Snappy would've protested more if his stomach wasn't so grumbly. "Well… Okay…" I said, "Bu' it wouldn' be very ladylike for you t' turn us down like that."

She gave me a little pout and waved goodbye. Since I was the last one out, I shut the door on the way out. "Gosh," Nat said, tromping through snowbanks in his galoshes on the way to Greedy's mess hall, "Sassette's sure sad 'bout th' Chris'mas party…"

"_Hmmph_!" Snappy said, crossing his arms, "I jus' don' get it! We all tell'er we'll take care'a her, we tell'er we don' mind her loosin' her hair, an' she _still_ won' come!"

He kicked a little snow in his path. "An' wha's th' big deal if somesmurfs look! It's not like they've got anythin' t' be proud about like that." He added irritably.

"I guess she doesn't feel like anybody really gets it," Handy shrugged, "sure we all keep our hats on because we don't have hair, but it's not like we lost it. It's just how we were smurfed. It's not the same…"

"But we do keep 'em on cause it's kinda '_mbarrassing_," Nat admitted, scratching the back of his head, "Elves, gnomes, pixies n' stuff all get hair, and we're bald? Some luck that is."

"I wish Sassette cou' see she's not th' _only_ one who doesn' like not havin' hair." I muttered.

All the sudden, Handy had a wide smile spread across his face. "Slouchy, I think I know something that'll make her see we understand where she's smurfing from!" he said. "C'mon! Let's go talk to Farmer, Vanity and Smurfette! And Tailor too!"

Nat and I shared a confused glance and followed Handy to Farmer's fields.

**(Smurfette)**

Handy had cleared us all on at least part of his plan. All he told me was to have Sassette all dressed up formally at my house at 6 o'clock.

"Are you _sure_ this's going to work, Handy?" I asked, "What if Sassette doesn't want to come with me?"

"Just trust me on this, Smurfette." Handy assured me, smiling, "if she does refuse, then just say you, Hefty and Vanity are smurfnapping her for the day, or something like that."

"_Tch! 'Smurfnapping'_ sounds so brutish," Vanity scoffed, casting a conceited glance at his mirror, "what about '_smurfopolizing her for the evening'_, or something a little less crude?"

"Call it whatever you want, Vanity," Handy shrugged, "the point I'm trying to smurf is have her all dressed up for the Christmas party by 6 at Smurfette's house."

There was no way she was going to willingly come over to my house to get ready for a party she didn't even want to go to. _This cockamamie scheme would never work_! But, if it would help Sassette come out of her shell a little bit… "And what are _YOU_ boys going to do?" I asked.

Tailor smiled smugly and pulled on the ends of his tape measurer. "I'm goin' t' smoif her up th' smoifiest lil' dress for th' party, a cowrse!" he said, his loud, unique voice louder than all of ours. "Lil' _fehgeleh_ won' know what smoifed 'er!"

We all looked at him. "_Fe_-what?" Snappy asked.

"Wha's a _feh-… feh_-…." Slouchy tried to pronounce the word like Tailor had, but eventually gave up "What's that?"

"_Fehgeleh, bubbee_. A sweet young girl, someone sweet. It's a term of ensmurfment." Tailor rolled his eyes a little. "Now if you don' mind, I'm gon' go work on it."

Tailor left to go "smoif up" the dress. I turned to the rest of them. "And what about you smurfs?" I asked, "What're you all doing that's so special?"

Handy shook his head. "That's for _us _to know, and _Sassette_ to find out!" he said, a big smug smile on his face.

It had rolled around to the next day and Vanity and I were walking to the smurflings' bunkhouse. "This isn't going to work," I muttered to Vanity, "She isn't going to want to come with!"

"Oh, _fiddlesmurfs_, Smurfette!" Vanity said, dismissing me with a wave of his hand, "Think positive!"

"Alright," I said, "I'm _positive_ this isn't going to work."

Hefty chuckled a little and nudged Vanity. Vanity rolled his eyes a little and knocked on the smurflings' door with the handle of his mirror. "Comin'!" Nat said from inside.

He opened the door. "Smurfaroo! What a surprise!" he said, rehashing the rehersed script we'd put together, "Sassette, lookit!"

Sassette was sitting up on her bunk, playing with her Smurfy Lou doll. She looked down at us and smiled a little. "Jumpin' June-bugs, hi, Smurfette! Hi Vanity! Hi Hefty! What're you all doin here?"

"We wanted to know if you wanted to get ready for the Christmas party with us." Vanity said, turning so he could watch her through his mirror, "even though the thought that this face needs any improvement is simply _unsmurfable_."

Sassette crossed her arms. "I'm not _goin'_ to th' party, r'member?" she said, frowning, "You'd jus' be wasting your time."

"Aw, c'mon, Sassy," Hefty climbed up the ladder and nudged her a little, "It'll be fun!"

Sassette pouted and shook her head, still crossing her arms. "Well, then just a dress-up get ready game," I suggested, "You love playing dress up."

Sassette kept pouting. "_Tch_! Well if that's the case…" Vanity said, looking over to Hefty with a sly smile.

Hefty smiled and nodded. In one swift motion he scooped her up from off the bed and held her in a firesmurf's carry down the ladder, careful not to pull out the needle in her chest. Sassette was giggling and squealing a lot, coughing lightly, and kicking her legs, trying to get Hefty to put her down. "Heftyyyyy! What're you doin'!" She asked, "Pu' me down!"

"We're smurfopolizing you for the day, darling!" Vanity practically sang, opening the door for Hefty.

She looked at him confused, "We're smurfnapping you for some fun," I said, laughing and giving Vanity a smug smile.

Vanity almost stuck his tongue out at me in mock-annoyance. Hefty carried Sassette, still giggling, coughing, and fighting, all the way to my house. I opened the door for them, and Hefty carried her up the stairs, and to my bedroom. "Alright, Hefty, lemme go now!" Sassette said, her face turning a little red from being upsidown.

"Are ya suuure y' want me to let you go, Sassy?" Hefty said, smiling ear to ear.

"Yes! Lemme go!" She said.

"Oh-kaay…" He said, walking backwards toward an open window, jokingly of course, "I'm gonna let you go now!"

Sassette squealed a little again and squirmed a little in his arms, "_EEP_! No! No! Not out _there_, Silly smurf!" she shrieked. "Over there!"

"Are ya sure?" Hefty said, laughing a little.

"_YES_ I'm sure! Pu' me down!" she giggled.

"Oh-kaay…" Hefty said walking over to my bed and carefully letting her go so that she bounced right on the bed.

Sassette laid like that on the bed for a minute, smiling the biggest smile I've seen in awhile now. "Hehe! You silly smurf!" she said, swatting Hefty's leg.

"Oh, I'm Silly?" he said, "I thought I was Hefty smurf!"

"Well yeah, but you're actin' silly!" she said, swatting him more.

"Well if I'm acting silly, then maybe that makes me "Crazy smurf!" he said, hanging his tongue out and hollering an "_**AWOOOO**_!"

Sassette laughed more. "Nooo, smarty!" she said, "You're _HEFTY_!"

"Smarty, now, huh?" he said, "Maybe that makes me Brainy smurf" he assumed a classic Brainy pose, one hand on his hip, the other pointing in condescension. "_Papa smurf aalllways says to-_"

Sassette laughed and swatted him again " No, no, no, you're _HEFTY_! Smurf it with me, _HEF-TY_"

"_Smurf-ette_?" he said, then stood more feminine like, and made his voice high pitched, "I'm Smurfette! Ooh, I just _looove_ my flower garden!"

"It's a little scary how well you do that," I joked, then started pushing him towards the door, "Alright, Hefty, or Crazy, or Brainy, or _whoever_ you are! You go get ready for the Christmas party!"

"Alright!" he said, still maintaining his "Smurfette voice", "Ta-ta, Sassy!"

He slipped out the door and left Sassette giggling on the bed. Vanity and I shared an amused glance. _Hefty really knows how to make smurfs smile. _Vanity took a seat on the stool in front of my vanity. "Alright, Sassette, come right over here and siddown." He said, patting the stool next to him and casting a glance in the mirror.

Sassette slowly stood up from the bed, holding her sides from all the laughing she'd been doing, and sat right down next to Vanity. Vanity dug right into his travel-size beauty products bag and gave her a special mud masque "put this all over your face, I swear, your skin will simply _radiate_ later." He said, putting some on his own cheeks.

Sassette got some out of the little container and slathered it all over her face, leaving openings for her eyes and mouth. I pulled up a chair and copied her, then opened one of the drawers in the vanity. "What color nail smurfer, Sassette?"

Sassette studied the little bottles of nail paint I had. "Mmmm…. _That_ one!" she said, her eyes resting on an inky blue, a few shades darker than her skin. "Or, no…" she changed her mind, "THAT one." She pointed to a metallic silver colored paint. "Oh, I can't choose!"

"Here's an idea," Vanity said, using his mirror to fan his face and make the mud dry faster, "what if you smurfed your nails dark blue, then had silver tips?"

"I like that idea." Sassette said.

"_Naturally_," Vanity smiled smugly, glancing at himself in the mirror then recoiling when he remembered he had the mud masque.

I painted our fingernails and toes, being especially careful of Sassette's delicate nails. Then, while we waited the mud masque and nail polish to dry, Vanity told us some of the latest village gossip. "You're _kidding_!" I laughed a little once his anecdote was complete.

Vanity shook his head with his same, coy smile. "Would this face lie to you?" he said, gesturing to himself, "I heard from Clumsy just _yesterday_ that Greedy ate nearly half the silo's smurfberries in one midnight snack. And that's why he had to make double the sarsaparilla cider last week- because Papa smurf found out!"

"Rompin' rhinos!" Sassette exclaimed, "That's a _lotta_ smurfberries!"

"Ooh, I'll say. My poor tummy hurts just _thinking_ about it!" Vanity said rolling his eyes and holding his stomach. "Oh! I think the masques are dry by now."

He peeled off the masque and ran a wet towel over his face. "Ahh, rejuvismurfing!" he sighed a little.

Sassette and I both peeled off our masques and wiped out faces, careful not to damage our nails. "Smurfaroo! My skin sure feels soft now." Sassette said cheerily, rubbing her cheeks with the palms of her hands.

Vanity shrugged, a self-assured smile on his face, "What did I tell you?" he said plainly.

I turned Sassette more towards me and took my make up bag from the edge of the vanity. "Make up, Smurfette?" She said widening her eyes a little and looking up at me. "Bu' you said it's only for grown ups."

I smiled a little and looked right at her. "On special days, _everyone's_ a grown up." I said, "And I think today is a _very_ special day."

She smiled excitedly then froze her face and sat perfectly still. As gently and quickly as I knew how, I penciled on a little eyeliner underneath both her eyes. "Ooh, this blush would look positively smurfy on you," Vanity said, swooping in with a palate and a brush.

I swatted him away a little, teasingly. "Hey! Hey! You had her for skin care! Now it's my turn!" I said, taking the brush and palate from his hands.

"_Tch_! Well _excuuuse_ me, but who did Hefty's make up when he went smurfing around as you for the day?" he cast a haughty look into his mirror.

"I saw him after the day was over, Vanity," I said, then made an only somewhat fake shudder, "Never, _EVER_ again!"

Vanity crossed his legs and rolled his eyes. "Tch! You act like it's _my_ fault Hefty makes a terrible girl," he joked.

I smiled at him, then went through my make up bag for something I only use for special occasions. Then realized I'd need to eat crow to get them to work. "Oh, Vanity?" I said sweetly as I could, "Could you please help me with these false eyelashes? I mean you are _such_ the style expert, and I am merely a-"

"Say no more, I am already there." He practically sang.

He put his mirror down on the desk of the vanity and moved next to me. He used tweezers and a steady hand to put glue on the lashes. "Okay, now look right towards Smurfette," he instructed her as he put the lashes where her real eyelashes ought to have been. "There we go. Now don't blink for a few more seconds."

She held her eyes open for a few moments, until the glue was dry. Vanity did my blush, and eyeshadow, and I did my own eye liner. I looked in the mirror. _As much as I hate to admit it, the smurf sure has an eye for make up… _There was a loud knock at my door. "I wonder who that could be?" I thought out loud.

Sassette followed me down the stairs, and I opened the door. "Tailor!" I said with a smile, "Hello!"

"Good evenin' _bubbeleh_," he said, giving me a friendly hug, "I smoifed up a fabulous dress fu' you, as well as lil' _fehgeleh_."

"_Fe_-what?" Sassette said, looking at him puzzled.

"_Fehgeleh_… it's a compliment, _bubbeleh_." Tailor put a hand to his face, "Oy, these smoifs!"

He handed me two dress bags. "Thank you, Tailor," I said with a smile.

"Think nothin' of it, _bubbeleh_." He said with a smile.

I brought the dress bags upstairs, then tossed them over the changing screen. "_Eep_! Somesmurf's back here!" Vanity said.

I looked at the clock. Around a half-past 5. Handy said to have her ready by 6 o'clock. "Well, hurry up, Vanity!" I said, "We have to change too!"

"_Tuh_! Beauty _can't_ be rushed, Smurfette!" he said indignantly.

Sassette and I shared an eye roll. Vanity came out from behind the scrim in his formal dress pants and a festive green tie. He posed for a moment, showing himself off. "Very smurfy, Vanity," I said. "Sassette, you should go put your dress on."

"Aw, maybe you shou' go first, Smurfette," she said, "I can wait."

I went back behind the changing scrim and changed into the bigger of the two dresses. It was a more spring-green knee-legnth dress that hugged my small waist in all the right ways. Ah, Tailor knows me so well. I stepped back out and modeled my new dress for Vanity and Sassette. "Pretty parakeets, Smurfette!" Sassette exclaimed, "You look so smurfy!"

"Thanks, Sassette." I said, then handed her her dress. "Now careful not to get make up all over it."

"I won't!" she said, ducking back behind the scrim.

When she came back out, I was _immediately_ stunned. Tailor had made her a claret red, nearly floor-lengh dress, shiny in color, and decorated with small green beads, with straps that tied in the back, and a style that perfectly hugged her waist so that it gave her just the right amount of curve, but not so much that it looked improper, or inappropriate for her age. She looked down, her cheeks blushing, and wrung her hands. "I- I don't normally wear stuff this _girly_…." She admitted. "I feel kinda _silly_…"

"Nonsense!" Vanity dismissed her nervousness, and putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "the most beautiful thing in _any_smurf is their _confidence_. You should be confident. You _ARE_ the second most beautiful smurf in the room, after all."

Sassette looked up at him with a certain stinkeye look. "Okay, the _most_." He rolled his eyes and gave her shoulder a light squeeze.

I knew he wasn't exactly lying when he expressed his opinion before. But it was really nice of him to add that anyway. "Ok! It was fun playin' dress up an' all, bu' I'm prolly gonna go back now." She said, stepping back behind the changing scrim.

Vanity and I both looked at eachother. It was nearly six, we just had to stall for another few more minutes! "_Wait_!" I said, "No dress-up would be complete without—um… without…"

I looked to Vanity to help me out. "Without… Jewelry!" he said, trying to improvise.

"Yes! Exactly!" I said, agreeing with him, and sitting her down on the bed.

For another fifteen minutes or so, we stalled her, going in circles with jewelry combinations and shoes, until finally there was a loud knock on the door. "Vanity, would you get that for me?" I asked, finally deciding on some small clip-on hoop earrings for Sassette.

Vanity nodded and went downstairs. A few minutes later, Vanity called from down the stairs. "Oh, girls! There's somesmurfs here to see you!" he almost sang.

Sassette and I walked from my room down the stairs. When we finally saw our visitors, Sassette stopped walking and her jaw dropped.

Standing at the foot of the stairs was Farmer, Handy, Nat, and Slouchy all dressed in formal clothes.

_And not a single one of them was wearing their hat._

Sassette stood for a minute, stunned. "Slitherin'-! Err, Hoppin'-! No, gallopin-!" she stuttered, for once unable to come up with one of her action-and-animal alliterations. "W—What _is_ this?" she said at last.

I shrugged my shoulders, feeling a bit stunned myself. Handy spoke up. "We wanted to let you know that we love you, no matter how you look right now, and that you're not the only one that doesn't like not having their hair" he said, "And to prove it, we're not wearing our hats. Smurfing _completely_ natural tonight!"

"Tha' way if somesmurfs _DO_ stare, they'll stare at _all_ of us. Not _jus'_ you." Nat said with a smile.

I noticed someone was missing from the smurfling boys trio. "Aw, gee wiz, Slouchy!" I heard Snappy's voice from outside. "I do'wan _any_smurf seein' me like this!"

"C'mon, Snappy, you _promised_!" Slouchy replied.

"C'mon, shugah, don'cha wan' show Sassette how much y' care?" Farmer called, subconsciously putting his hand on Vanity's waist.

Snappy pushed his way through the little group, his hat still on his head. "_Snappyyy_…" Nat glared at him a little bit.

"Okay, okay!" he muttered, "But if anysmurf laughs…!"

The smurflings, and everyone else in the room promised they wouldn't laugh. Snappy pouted a little bit, then took his hat off and stuffed it in his pocket. Everyone in the room was speechless. Sassette started giggling a little bit. "You-! You have a _birthmark_ on your head!" she said trying to keep herself from laughing, "_how_ could I've never seen that before!"

Snappy's pout turned even more sour and his cheeks were bright red. "I _tol'_ you not t' laugh!" he said, crossing his arms. "_Hmmph_! See if I ever smurf somethin' nice for _you_ 'gain!"

Sassette walked down the rest of the stairs, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed Snappy on the forehead. "_This's the smurfiest thing anysmurf's ever done for me_." She said, her voice sounding broken with happy tears.

She hugged all three of them and one at a time gave them all a kiss where his hat had been. I don't think I've ever seen such a heartwarming sight as what these smurflings had done for their friend. It brought tears to my eyes just seeing it. ", what're we waitin' for!" Sassette said, "We can't just keep the whole _party_ waitin'!"

We all started walking out the door, on our way to the party. I managed to catch up with Handy. "This's some plan, Handy." I said, still blinking back tears.

Handy shrugged. "It was Slouchy's idea," he said, "I just put it all together."

I gave him a little hug as we walked. "Still… It was _really_ sweet of you to do this for her." I said, "I've _never_ seen a smurfling so happy before."

Handy smiled and shrugged a little more. "I figured it was the least I could do," he said modestly, "I wasn't there before, so I had to make it up to her somehow."

I looked up at him and smiled. "I think you've made it up to her, and then some." I said, "I noticed you're unaccompanied?"

He chuckled a little. "No other females, remember?"

I looped my arm around his. "Well, I simply can't let somesmurf who put together something so gallant and gentlesmurfly go to the Christmas party _on his own_," I said with a smile, "Handy, will you be _my_ escort?"

Handy smiled and blushed a little. "I'd be _honored_, Smurfette."

**(Slouchy)**

At the party, some of the other smurfs were surprised to see us without our hats. Everysmurf, including Papa smurf, muttered amongst themselves for a minute or two. But when they saw Sassette smiling confidently and standing with us, they seemed to understand, so they clapped for us. Some of the smurfs in the crowd even took their hats off to show sympathy. The party itself was just like any other Christmas party, lots of cookies, and cakes and stuff. The music was festive and happy. Some of the older smurfs had big glasses of smurfberrynog-the _grownup's_ kind- and were saying some pretty odd stuff. I just stayed away from them and stood over by the cider spigot. On the rare times the music did slow down, most of the smurfs who had been dancing just turned to eachother and talked casually, but some of them paired off and danced together. Handy and Smurfette, to name a couple. _Huh. When did that happen_? I asked myself.

I got myself some more cider and looked for Sassette. She was sitting down on the other side of the room, catching her breath or something. _She sure looked pretty in her dress… _Hair or no hair. Greedy kinda stumbled over from the other side of the table, a large nearly-empty glass of smurfberrynog in his hand. "H-heya, Slouchy." He said, a slight slur in his words.

"Hiya, Greedy." I said, not looking back.

He steadied himself against the table and grabbed a big handful of cookies. He looked in the direction I was looking in. "Ahhh…." He said, smirking and nodding a little. "I see wha's goin' on here."

"I dunno what you're smurfin' about." I said, taking a drink from my cider cup.

"You gonna ask'er t' dance?" Greedy straighted up a little and nudged me.

"Naah…" I said, drinking more cider.

"Aw, come on, Slouchy," he said, "If you don' someone sure as smurf will."

"She wouldn' wanna, Greedy," I said, watching as he took a big drink from his glass. "B'sides, I'm no good at dancin'."

"Who said you had t' be good?" he said, giggling a little bit, "An' you'll never know if she doesn' wanna dance til she says so."

I watched as Nat walked over to her and talked to her. _Was he…?_ "See?" Greedy said, gesturing towards her, "Whad' I tell ya?"

Nat talked to her a little bit. She looked right at me and smiled really big. She talked to Nat a little bit more, and then he walked away. I looked up at Greedy, who was taking another big gulp of smurfberrynog, nearly finishing his glass. "_See_?" I said smugly.

Greedy shrugged. "All I see is tha' you mighta jus' missed your chance." He said, "C'mon, go ask her."

"Noooo…" I said, kicking the floor a little.

"C'mon… just walk right up to her and say '_Sassette, may I have this dance_?'" he said, extending his hand, kinda acting out his little situation, "Girls _flip_ for stuff like that!"

"You know this because…?" I asked, sarcastically.

"I've had my fair share of lady-friends" he said smugly, "The way to a girls heart is through her _stomach_, y'know."

I rolled my eyes a little. "I'm pretty sure that's not the quote." I muttered.

"So I'm a little off, smurf me. Come onnnn… Smurf me a break here!" he said, nudging me. "I'll let'cha try some smurfberrynog."

_Well… I did wonder what it tasted like…_ "Ok…." I said, "But if she says no, I'm blamin' _you_."

He put his hands up almost defensively. Greedy gave me the edge of the glass he hadn't drank from, then tilted it up a little bit. Once I actually got a taste of the stuff, I almost wanted to spit it right back in the cup. But I swallowed it anyways, just so I wouldn't be rude. "_Aaack_!" I said, sticking my tongue out in disgust, "How do you grownups _drink_ this awful stuff?"

Greedy shrugged a little, and chuckled to himself. "I guess it smurfs more sense when you get older," he said, "Now you gotta smurf up _YOUR_ end of the bargain!"

I watched as he started walking away. "Don't forget!" he practically sang, then walked headlong into a table. "_SMURFIT_ who put that table there…?"

I laughed a little at Greedy's table-related silliness. Then, the music started to slow down a little, and smurfs that had been dancing before either paired off or turned to eachother and started talking. _I guess it's now or never_. I put my glass of cider down and walked across the room to where Sassette was standing. "Hi, Sassette." I said.

She looked up at me and smiled. "Hi, Slouchy." She said happily.

I scratched the back of my bare head. This was—well- kinda _hard_, actually. "So… um… May I- uh… M-may I…."_Why can't I just say it?_ "May I have this dance?"

She slowly stood up. "I'd like that, Slouchy." She said.

She took my hand, and we walked out to the dance floor together. I looked over at Smurfette and Handy to see how to stand. Sassette put her hand on my shoulder. I put mine on her waist. As the music played slowly, we just kinda swayed a little in time. My cheeks felt really warm. Sassette's looked real pink. "I- Thought you should know," I said, hoping I didn't start babbling, "You look _real_ smurfy tonight."

She smiled and looked away, looking a little embarrassed by my compliment. "Thanks…" she said, "so d'you."

We were quiet for a minute or two, just kinda swaying side to side in time with the music. "I know, by the way," she said.

"Huh?" I asked.

"_I know that it was your idea_." She said smiling really big at me. "Nat told me."

So that's what he was telling her… "Yeah…" I shrugged a little, "Bu' _Handy_ put it all t'gether."

"Still…" she said, then put her head on my shoulder. "Thank you… that's the nicest, _smurfiest_ thing anysmurf's ever done for me…"

I blushed a lot, then used the hand I had on her waist to pat her back. "Y-you're welcome, Sassette…" I said.

It was quiet again for a few moments. Then I spoke up. Now or never! "Sassette…?" I said, "I… I _like_ you… like- _like_-like…"

She moved her head from my shoulder and looked at me. She smiled. "Good." She said, "Cause I _like_- like you too."

Then she giggled a little and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I smiled a little, then kissed her cheek too. I looked around a little at the other smurfs on the dance floor. I caught sight of Vanity and Farmer watching us. Farmer rose his eyebrow and gave me a serious look. Vanity laughed a little and swatted him. I looked away to Smurfette and Handy, who seemed to be in their own world, dancing in little circles. _I wonder if that meant they were smurffriends now?_ "Hey, Slouchy?" Sassette brought me back. "Does this mean we're like… Smurffiends or somethin' now?"

I shrugged a little. "I guess we _could_ be, if y'wanted to…" I said.

"I think I'd like that, then." She said, hugging me. "It's funny… Lately… I've been so _scared_ 'bout this whole cancer thing… Bu' right now… _I don' feel so scared anymore_…"

"_I promised it'd be ok, didn't I_…?"

**(Smurfette)**

Only a couple short weeks passed before Sassette had a break in her chemo cycles and she had to go back to Miragua for a check-up. She went through the basic check-up she did when we first found out about the cancer, nearly three months ago now. In the meantime, not a lot had changed. Sassette never had another night like she did when she nearly died. Her new little smurffriend, Slouchy, was at her side during all her treatments, as well as Nat and Snappy, of course. And, ultimately, things seemed pretty-what we'd come to _know_ as- normal.

The doctors had performed another test like the one they did to find out whether or not she had cancer. This time, they were running it to see how many more chemo cycles it would take before the cancer was gone for good. Sassette was sitting on Papa smurf's knee again, nervously holding onto Slouchy's hand for support. Snappy was pacing impatiently, getting more irritable by the second. Nat was sitting with his knees to his chest, waiting for some kind of news. Farmer sat in between Nat and where Snappy was pacing, offering quiet reassurance to the small smurfling.

Dr. Nava soon entered the scene, carrying a small dossier. Snappy noticed her presence and sat down on the chair. "Yes?" Papa smurf said, anxiously, "how many more?"

Dr. Nava adjusted her glasses and opened the file. "Well… See for yourself…"she said.

We all leaned over to look at the file. She showed us a picture of a pair of lungs with a deformity in the left one. "This is a picture of Sassette's lungs a little over three months ago," she said, then showed us a picture of what looked like the same pair of lungs, but without the deformity. "This is a picture of Sassette's lungs a little over an hour ago."

I couldn't help but stare at the two pictures for a minute. "S-so does that mean-?" Sassette looked up at her hopefully.

Dr. Nava nodded her head happily. "Yes, Sassette. By some medical miracle, _your cancer is cured_. And in a third of the time _anyone_ ever would've guessed."

I'm not ashamed. I _cried_. I had big, bubbly tears running down my face. So did Sassette. She was hugging Papa smurf with all the strength her small smurfling stature could muster. Then once her grip loosened on Papa smurf, she immediately went right over to Farmer and gave him a great big hug. The sensitive farmhand had tears running down his cheeks as he squeezed the little pink-overalled bundle. Nat, Snappy and Slouchy all joined in the hug too, all of them so happy to have their friend be okay. Then she broke from the hug and hugged me like there was no tomorrow. "_I'm gon' be okay, Smurfette_," she said, her voice quiet with tears, "_I'm gon' be okay_."

Some time later, on the return trip home, Sassette sat with Farmer. "Tenacious termites, Farmer… I've been thinkin' 'bout somethin'…" she said.

"Wha's tha', shugah?" He replied.

"I don' think it was all the _medicine_ tha' made me get better so quick." She said with a wide smile.

"Oh?" Farmer said, raising his eyebrows a little in surprise.

"Nope." She said, shaking her head, "I think it was 'cause I had you an' Pappy, an' Smurfette, an' most 'mportantly Nat, Snappy an' Slouchy. Cause, you guys _never_ let me give up. An' maybe _tha's_ wha's _real_ important."

She turned back around to Snappy, Slouchy and Nat. "An' I think that _soon_ as we're all big 'nough, we're all goin' on tha' trip t'gether. Jus' us four."

The boys all nodded in agreement. "That might not be for _quite_ awhile, my little smurflings," Papa smurf chuckled a little, "You're all still a bit young."

"Tha's okay, Papa smurf." Slouchy said. "_We've got all th' time in th' world now_."

_Yes. _

_Sassette won._

_They had all the time in the world now._

* * *

><p><strong>Give up? It's "Skin" by Rascal Flatts: youtube<strong>_/watch?v=JhnU9IYTD9c **(Gadd... that song makes me cry :,) )**_


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